Nikki Haley ticks off Pak for terror, hails India

New Delhi: Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, on Thursday said that America will not tolerate the Pakistani government “giving safe haven to terrorists” and that this message was being communicated to Islamabad “more strongly than in the past”.

In her address at an event here, Ms Haley hailed New Delhi as a “vital strategic partner” and said that both the US and India “must be global leaders in the fight against terrorism”.

“In many instances, Pakistan has been a partner with us, and we value and respect that. But we cannot tolerate its government, or any other government, giving safe haven to terrorists. We won’t tolerate it. We are communicating this message to Pakistan more strongly than in the past and we hope to see changes,” she said.

“The US and India have both felt the pain of terrorism. We share a commitment to defeating terrorists and the hateful ideology that motivates them. We share an urgent interest in eliminating the terrorist networks that threaten us, and to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists and their sponsors. Both our nations lost citizens in the horrific Mumbai attack a decade ago. As fellow democracies, the US and India must be global leaders in the fight against terrorism,” she added. Ms Haley, the senior most Indian-American in Trump administration, is on a two-day tour to India to discuss areas of cooperation.

Highlighting that the US and India have expanded their counter-terrorism cooperation in the past decade, Ms Haley said, “We can and we must do more. We must use all of the elements of our national power — economic, diplomatic and military — to protect ourselves.”

Ms Haley said that this includes working together at the UN to designate terrorist leaders and networks.

“Neither of our nations can afford to turn a blind eye to the regimes that produce, harbour, and support terrorists,” she said.

On China’s expansionist policies, Ms Haley said, “China does not share our (American) commitment to democracy, the rule of law, and fundamental freedoms” and that “this makes China’s expansion of loans and investments in countries in the region a matter of concern for many of us”.

Just hours after postponement of the Indo-US 2+2 dialogue, Ms Haley said, “When America’s and India’s defence and foreign ministers meet they will discuss ways the US can continue to support India as a provider of regional security, particularly in and around the Indian Ocean.”

She added that delay in that 2+2 dialogue, which will entail external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman meeting their American counterparts, was completely unrelated to India.

Talking about efforts to form an Indo-Pacific regional quadrilateral of the US, India, Japan and Australia, Ms. Haley said, “The future of the Indo-Pacific region will depend on how democratic nations address international economic and strategic threats. That is why India is not only a friend of the US, but also a vital strategic partner.”