At the joint press interaction, Swaraj and Tillerson asked Pakistan to take concrete action against terror groups in the region
At the end of one-and-half-hour bilateral discussions with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi on Wednesday, the visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, without mentioning China, made it clear that Washington was looking to strengthen co-operation with India in the Indo-Pacific region and backed its emergence as a leading power.
To achieve that goal, Washington is ready to provide the best technology for India's military modernisation, which includes discussing deals for F16 and F18 fighter jets. In 2003, USA had asked New Delhi to become a core member of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) group to allow Indian defence forces to provide maritime security that included stopping, conducting searches of air, sea and land cargo linked with "dangerous technologies". But this did not materialize due to India's reticence.
At the joint press interaction, Swaraj and Tillerson asked Pakistan to take concrete action against terror groups in the region. Tillerson said during his stop-over at Islamabad, he asked the leadership there to take action against terror groups and said an enhancement in their capabilities may pose a threat to them.
"We gave our list of expectations to leaders in Pakistan and told them that terror havens will not be tolerated," said Tillerson. Swaraj, on her part, said Pakistan must dismantle the terror infrastructure, insisting that any country backing terror groups must be held accountable.
Tillerson said India was crucial to US-Afghanistan strategy and his government was looking at strengthening co-operation with India in the Indo-Pacific region. He said it was in Pakistan's own interest to not just contain but eliminate terror safe havens as they could threaten the stability of the government. "There are too many terrorist organisations that find a safe place in Pakistan who used to conduct operations in the past against other countries," he said. He, however, ended his comment, saying US wants to work with Pakistan.
While the US raised its concerns over India's trade and diplomatic contacts with North Korea, India stressed the need to keep window of communications open for larger interests. Swaraj said she told Tillerson that India plans to retain its North Korean embassy with minimal staff so as to keep open channels of communication open, as Washington steps up global pressure to isolate Pyongyang for its nuclear and missile programmes. "As far as the question of embassy goes, our embassy there is very small, but there is in fact an embassy," she said. "I told Secretary Tillerson that some of their friendly countries should maintain embassies there so that some channels of communication are kept open."
Sources said that the issue of sanctions against Iran and India's investment in various projects in that country also came up. The deteriorating relations between the US and Iran have unnerved India as the pace of work on various projects such as Chabahar port has started getting affected. Tillerson said that US sanctions against Iran targeted the country's "malign behaviors" and were aimed at helping the Iranian people take control of their government. He, however, assured Swaraj that Washington would not block "legitimate" business activities with Iran by India or any other ally.
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 "External Affairs Min Sushma Swaraj with US Secy of State Rex Tillerson")
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