The United States and Pakistan have held their annual counterterrorism dialogue in Islamabad, reaffirming a “shared commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” despite Pakistan’s long history of hosting terrorist groups.

The joint statement from the meeting, co-chaired by U.S. State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism Gregory LoGerfo and Pakistan’s Special Secretary for the UN Nabeel Munir, said Washington “applauded Pakistan’s continued successes in containing terrorist entities that pose a threat to regional and global peace.”

The statement named three groups — Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), ISIS-Khorasan, and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — but made no mention of other U.S.-designated terrorist organisations based in Pakistan, including Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hizbul Mujahideen, and The Resistance Front, which carried out the April Pahalgam attack in India.

The BLA and its affiliate, The Mujaheed Brigade, were added to the U.S. list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations a day before the talks, subjecting them to sanctions. The U.S. expressed condolences for victims of recent terrorist incidents in Pakistan, including the hijacking of the Jafar Express in April, which killed 31 people, and the suicide bombing of a school bus in Khuzdar in May that left 10 civilians, including eight students, dead.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said both sides discussed ways to enhance cooperation against terrorist threats, calling it “good for the region and for the world.” She added that sustained and structured engagement is essential to promoting peace and stability.

The dialogue, held annually since at least 2023, also covered building stronger institutional frameworks, improving counterterror capabilities, and addressing the use of emerging technologies by terrorist networks.