In a stern warning to Islamabad, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Thursday made it clear that the Donald Trump administration would not tolerate the Pakistani establishment giving safe havens to terrorists.
“We are communicating this message to Pakistan more strongly than in the past and we hope to see changes,’’ she said in an address on ‘Advancing India-US relations’ organised by a leading think tank here. Washington could not turn a blind eye to those harbouring terrorists. In many instances, however, Pakistan has been a partner of the US and Washington valued that, she added.
Describing Iran as a threat to regional peace, Haley indicated that she had discussed the Iranian nuclear issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their meeting on Wednesday night. India, she claimed, fully recognised the threat from Iran.
“We believe we can’t take our eyes off Iran. We don’t believe this because of some ideas but because of proof. We have seen that in spite of the Iran deal, it continued to violate resolution after resolution. In our eyes, Iran is the next North Korea,’’ she said.
Haley said Iran’s pursuit for nuclear weapons threatened the global community, suggesting that this was one of the reasons for President Trump to pull out of the nuclear deal with Tehran.
On the postponement of the ‘2+2’ dialogue between India and the US, the senior Indo-American official clarified that the delay was completed unrelated to India. The dialogue, she said, would take place ‘very soon’. She said when the defence ministers of the two countries meet, they would continue to explore how the US could continue to build both military and strategic partnership with India.
India and the US, Haley said, must be global partners in the fight against terrorism, adding, “we can and must to more.’’ The two countries, she said, shared a commitment to defeating terrorism and the hateful ideology that motivated it.
She observed that the relationship between India and the US has changed over the years from indifference to mutual suspicion to friendship and partnership. She added that India and the US also shared the freedom of religion.
Referring to Prime Minister Modi’s recent speech at the ‘Shangri-La Dialogue’ in Singapore in which he spoke about freedom of navigation, Haley said cooperation between India and the US was essential to foster peace in the Indo-Pacific region. Talking about China, she said the country was important but emphasised that its expansion in the region was a matter of concern since Beijing did not share democratic values.