The United States of America, which recently announced to sell eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, feels Islamabad has not done sufficient to fight terrorism and it needs to do much more for peace and stability in the region.
Speaking at the annual lecture of the Indian Association of Foreign Affairs Correspondents, US Ambassador to India Richard Verma said Pakistan needs to crack down on terror groups and perpetrators of terror have to be brought to justice.
He credited both India and Pakistan for moving ahead on improving bilateral relations and added strong relationship with India will always remain important for any US Government. “Dialogue process between two countries is important and both Prime Ministers (Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif) deserve a lot of credit and we will do everything to support it,” Verma said.
However, he expressed the US has taken a firm line on Pakistan’s need to crack down on safe havens and groups and take action against the perpetrators of terror. Defending security partnership with Pak and sale of F-16 jets he said it is to address terror and counter insurgency threats in Pakistan. He added the US wants India to be a strong partner in combating terror in the region and the US is also helping India to strengthen its security forces.
“We are engaged in cooperation with India that is not only unprecedented for this relationship bit is qualitatively different from those we share with any other country in the region. We are focused on helping Indian forces develop the capabilities and platforms that will allow them to fulfill India’s stated goal of becoming a leading power in the region and beyond...There is no other country in the world that we are supporting as an emerging global defence leader... Our offers to provide Indian forces with Apache attack helicopters, Chinook heavy lift helicopters and M 777 howitzers are akin to our Defence relationships with our closest NATA allies. Never in our history have we actively supported the indigenous development of an aircraft carrier programme in another country. Yet, we are doing so today — the Joint Aircraft Carrier Technology Working Group met here in India this past week….We are also eager to partner with India on solutions to its pressing need for modern fighter aircraft,” Verma said.
Defending the hike in visa fees that Indians feel is discriminatory, Verma said, “it is not designed to target India and India will continue to get the lion’s share in the H1B and li visas.”
On the latest debate on sedition and crackdown on JNU campus, the US envoy tried to wriggle out saying, “It will be hard to find a country as diverse as India. With diversity comes different views particularly on college campuses. Both our countries have frankly celebrated and welcomed these are laboratories of thoughts. All democracies have to deal with this question on what is appropriate amount of freedom to give to people. It is a question for Indian society to resolve.”