US concerned about Pakistan government’s stability, Tillerson says in India

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NEW DELHI: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday the United States was concerned that extremist groups pose a threat to the “stability and security” of the Pakistan government.

Tillerson, who arrived in New Delhi late Tuesday after his visit to Islamabad, said the US was worried that too many extremist groups were finding safe havens inside Pakistan from which to launch attacks on other nations.

“Quite frankly my view—and I expressed this to the leadership of Pakistan—is we also are concerned about the stability and security of Pakistan’s government as well,” he told reporters in New Delhi.

“This could lead to a threat to Pakistan’s own stability. It is not in anyone´s interests that the government of Pakistan be destabilised.”

In New Delhi, the secretary of state thanked his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj for standing “shoulder to shoulder” with the US in combating extremism in the region.

US BACKS INDIA AS REGIONAL LEADER:

Tillerson, while addressing a joint press conference in New Delhi along with Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, said that Washington backed India as a leader in the region, a day after he sought Pakistan’s cooperation in restoring peace in Afghanistan and calling the country an ‘incredibly important’ player to deal with some of the pressing challenges facing the region.

Tillerson added that India was crucial to Afghan strategy.

In an apparent reference to Pakistan, he said that terrorist safe havens will not be tolerated.

The secretary of state earlier laid a wreath at a memorial to India´s independence movement leader Mahatma Gandhi, removing his shoes to approach a pillar marking the spot where Gandhi was shot dead on January 30, 1948.

On his maiden visit to Islamabad, Secretary Tillerson – while renewing the US demand seeking action against Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network – said many of the solutions to the regional challenges have to be found in Pakistan in a statement that underlines the importance of Islamabad in the Trump administration’s new strategy for Afghanistan and South Asia.

“Pakistan has an incredibly important role in that South Asia strategy. The country is very important to us. The security, the stability of the country is very important to us,” the secretary of state remarked while interacting with the US Embassy staff before talks with Pakistani authorities.

Tillerson’s visit to Pakistan came months after US President Donald Trump accused Islamabad of harbouring “agents of chaos” who could attack US-led NATO forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Tillerson’s warning followed an unannounced stop in Afghanistan Monday, where he reiterated US commitment to the country and warned that Washington has made “very specific requests” of Pakistan over militancy.

Meanwhile, India has agreed to hold talks on Afghanistan with the US and Kabul, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said after meeting Tillerson.

Support for efforts to bolster the Afghan government, China’s influence and other South Asian security issues are likely to be the focus of the discussion between the two leaders, officials reports stated.

Recently, Tillerson called upon India for deeper cooperation in the wake of the growing Chinese influence in the region adding that Washington wishes to promote a “free and open” region led by prosperous democracies.

He also said Beijing sometimes flouted international conventions, citing the South China Sea dispute as an example.

India welcomed the comments, saying they “highlighted our shared commitment to a rule-based international order”.

9 COMMENTS

  1. Size dosnt always matter.look at a small sri Lankan mahut controlling a huge elephant.look at Indian history small foreign forces ruling Indian for centuries at a time..India will always be a third rate nation..remember firing a bandook over someone else’s shoulder is a recipe for disaster. America is nobody’s friend

  2. Pakistani people must do away with voting for thieves, crooks and looters, that is what is keeping the country backward, poor, indebted and subservient. Try for a change, voting for intelligent and upright people, you have nothing to loose except your poverty and miserable existence which you have imposed on yourselves time and again through the choice of your vote on election day.

    • Correct pakistan will remain a poverty stricken country, as long as it tries to match with India. We have forced you to eat grass for generations and will make sure, the next ten generations eat mud. The only option for pakistan is to put its own house in order. Work on poverty eradication, educate your population. Pakistan has good deal lessons to learn from Bangladesh, which has surpassed your nation on economic indicators because they don’t fantasize matching a giant like India. India has different objectives i.e from being a regional power to a global power, with a combination of economic and military might.

  3. Quite frankly as a world citizen im worried about the stability of the world with trump as president. The worlds a FAR more dangerous place now, north korea? Worry less about pakistan, the army controls the nukes. Tillerson should be sorrying about his president. Lol

  4. Is tillerson kidding me?? He’s obviously been eating too many of thise RARE REPUBLICAN TEXAS STEAKS and has lost his mind. Pakistan can not be your scape goat for everything. Just admit it. Youve dont it again, vietnam all over. Kissing indias ministers ****** wont help now will it?

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