US envoy to the UN Nikki Haley on Thursday said Washington will not tolerate governments giving safe haven to terrorists and will communicate this message more strongly to Islamabad than it used to do in the past…reports Asian Lite News
“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,” Haley said in a speech at a public function here.
“In this area, the US is approaching our relationship with Pakistan differently than in the past,” Haley said in her speech on “Advancing India-US Relations” organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
The US envoy, who is on a three-day visit, said the US and India have both felt the pain of terrorism, both share a commitment to defeat it and the hateful ideology that motivates them and share an urgent interest to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists.
“We have greatly expanded our counterterrorism cooperation in the past decade. But 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,” she said.
She said the US has significantly upgraded its security cooperation with India and was now a major defence partner of the US. At the 2+2 dialogue, both countries will discuss ways the US can support India as a provider of regional security around the Indian Ocean.
As she hoped for a free and open Indo-Pacific and protection of sovereign nations from external coercion for peace, stability and commerce, Haley said China is a matter of concern and its failure to respect the rule of law will restrict the relationship between the US and China.
“Unlike India, China does not share our commitment to democracy, the rule of law, and fundamental freedoms. This makes China’s expansion of loans and investments in countries in the region a matter of concern for many of us.
“China’s failure to respect the rights of its people and the rule of law will limit its own ability to grow and prosper over the long term. And unlike with India, this will limit the United States’ relationship with China,” she said.
On North Korea, Haley said the regime has devoted a huge portion of its limited resources to its nuclear and missile programmes, even in times of famine and at great cost to the lives of its people.
Only a strong, effective international sanctions effort has brought the regime to the negotiating table, she said and added that only time will tell whether the people of North Korea will finally be given priority over their government’s dangerous nuclear ambitions.
“The sanctions will stay on. The pressure will continue. We need to see full actions on denuclearisation,” Haley said.