According to a source, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has redesignated Pakistan as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for breaching religious freedom, as well as reclassifying the Taliban as an Entity of Particular Concern. Former President Donald Trump's administration included Pakistan to the list in December 2018 and kept it there in 2020.

According to the Dawn news source, the Joe Biden administration has kept the original list with two changes: Russia has been added to the CPC category, and Sudan has been removed from the CPC category.

"Each year, the Secretary of State has the duty to identify nations and non-state entities who, because of their religious freedom abuses, merit designation under the International Religious Freedom Act," Blinken said in a statement released by the State Department on Wednesday. For having engaged in or allowed "systematic, persistent, and egregious breaches of religious freedom," I am designating Burma, the People's Republic of China, Eritrea, Iran, the DPRK, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as Countries of Particular Concern. North Korea's official name is DPRK. He was cited as adding, "I am also placing Algeria, Comoros, Cuba, and Nicaragua on a Special Watch List for regimes that have engaged in or tolerated 'severe abuses of religious freedom.'

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