United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Washington has heard Pakistan's concerns about terrorist attacks mounted from Afghan soil, and would play a productive role if it were able to help, but he announced no specific commitment, meeting, envoy or timeline. Rubio was speaking to reporters at the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, on 31 October.

Rubio said the United States did not want Pakistan to be targeted for terrorism, and that it opposed terrorism no matter where it came from or whom it targeted. He said Pakistan believed the Afghan Taliban had not done enough to constrain attacks, and that Pakistan had taken action in response. He also noted that Washington did not have a particularly close relationship with the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan.

Islamabad's position

Pakistan says militants, including those linked to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), use Afghan sanctuaries to plan and carry out attacks inside Pakistan, and has repeatedly called on Kabul to take verifiable action against them. On Saturday night Pakistan's information ministry said terrorism was a red line, that the security of Pakistani citizens was non-negotiable, and that Islamabad reserved the right to act against threats wherever they originated, while remaining open to discussions that were not unconditional.

What was not promised

Nothing in Rubio's remarks indicated what form any American involvement might take, whether intelligence sharing, mediation or pressure on Kabul. That conditional wording matters: acknowledgement of a complaint is not the same as backing for a particular course of action, and the test of the remarks will be whether any concrete step follows. The exchange comes after weeks of border incidents and diplomatic friction between Pakistan and Afghanistan, with earlier Qatar, Turkiye and China-facilitated talks ending without a breakthrough.