Adopting a tough stance against terrorism emanating from Pakistan, India on Tuesday said there cannot be “double standards” in combating the scourge and asked Pakistan to withdraw safe havens provided to terror outfits operating from its soil. Making this point during her talks with her US counterpart John Kerry, Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj said India and the US agreed that nations must not act as sanctuaries and safe havens for terrorist organisations. Kerry said his country stands in “strong partnership” with India against all terrorism.
“There was meeting of minds between the two sides on the issue of terrorism and we both agreed that Pakistan needs to do more to bring the perpetrators of Mumbai and Pathankot attacks to justice,” Swaraj said, adding talks with Pakistan will take place only when it takes steps on Pathankot terror attack. “Terror and talks cannot go hand-in-hand,” she remarked.
Swaraj and Kerry met here during the 2nd India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue co-chaired by Swaraj and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, along with US Secretary of State Kerry and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. Swaraj said there was scope “to do a lot more” in the field of counter-terrorism by India and the US and called for enhancing co-operation in counter-terrorism. Besides bilateral issues, substantive discussions were held on important regional and global developments, including the security situation.
Terrorism, more specifically emanating from Pakistan, figured prominently during talks between the two leaders. Swaraj briefed Kerry on the “continuing problem of cross-border terrorism that India and the larger region face from Pakistan.”
Addressing a joint news conference with the visiting leader, Swaraj said, “We reaffirmed the urgent necessity for Pakistan to dismantle safe havens for terrorists and criminal networks, including lashkar-e-Taiybba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and D Company.”
Kerry said he had spoken to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Raheel Sharif so that Pakistan does not any terrorist group a safe haven. The US Secretary of State said, “We cannot and will not distinguish between good and bad terrorists,” adding, the US stands with India on all matters of terrorism, no matter where it comes from.
“It’s crystal clear we are on the same view over it,” he said. The visiting leader reiterated the US support to India’s demand that Pakistan take action against attackers involved in the Mumbai attacks and terrorist strike on the Pathankot airbase.
Kerry said, “It is vital that Pakistan join with other nations in tackling this challenge, and in fairness, in recent weeks and months they have been moving more authoritatively.”
Swaraj said the two countries agreed that nations must not maintain double standards, such as the categorisation of good and bad terrorists, nor must they act as sanctuaries and safe havens for terrorist organisations. Kerry said, “I made it very clear that the United States stands in strong partnership with India against all terrorism no matter from where it comes from, no matter what form it takes. As I said there is no good terrorists, bad terrorists. Terrorism is terrorism. We have had conversation with all of the members of the region frankly about the efforts they need to take to curb terrorism that comes out of their countries.”
Stating that they have interacted with Pakistan in one way or the other, Kerry said, “I have recently spoken to the Prime Minister and General Raheel Sharif regarding the need for Pakistan to deprive any group sanctuaries. It is well known that the Haqqani network and others operated out of the western part of the country. leT, we all know and we all spoken out against, had an impact on India, directly.”
The two countries agreed to boost their counter-terrorism cooperation by enhancing intelligence sharing, screening of terrorists, exchange of information on known or suspected terrorists. They also agreed to continue to work closely to get terrorist entities listed by the UN system, by coordinating the approach to the UN 1267 Committee. Noting that ties between the two countries in the sphere of defence, energy and security had deepened, Kerry said the US was looking forward to finalise a cyber framework that will help the two countries protect from new global cyber threats.
During the talks, Swaraj said in view of the rapidly evolving regional and global situation, India looks forward to resuming the meeting of the Trilateral with Afghanistan; consultations on Africa and on multilateral issues within this year. Asserting that India’s enhanced global role was in mutual interest, she said, “It is in this context, we look forward to continue working closely with the US to secure our membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and permanent membership of the UN Security Council.”
Promoting robust defence cooperation and taking to the next stage of co-production and co-development, Swaraj said, “For this, we need to define the benefits associated with India’s designation as a ‘Major Defence Partner’ of the US during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit in June.” This would spur defence industry collaboration between India and the US and help India play the desired role as a net provider of security in the region, she said.
She also pitched for a “just and non-discriminatory solution” to the issue of totalisation and recent fee hike for H1B and l1 visa that has “affected our people-to-people exchanges, which was a vital source of strength for our relationship.”
Swaraj also talked about the need to step up collaboration in the area of clean energy that will make it viable for us to make quantum transition to renewable energy away from fossil fuel, and achieve our ambitious climate goals.
She pitched for a strategic direction and enhanced oversight on the economic and commercial engagement to make sure aspirations and interests of our businesses get high- level attention; to guarantee that our commercial relations do not remain transactional and to foster better appreciation for the strategic priorities of our economic policies.