US Tells Pakistan to Ensure That Terror Groups do Not Enjoy Safe Haven in Country

Assistant Secretary in charge of South Asia in the US State Department, Alice Wells said that she wanted Pakistan to give a strict message to the Taliban that they should either negotiate or they might be expelled from the country.

New Delhi: The United States on Wednesday said that it wanted Pakistan to ensure that terror groups do not enjoy a safe haven in the country. Assistant Secretary in charge of South Asia in the US State Department, Alice Wells said that they have urged the Pakistan government to build more pressure on the terror groups. Wells added, “We’ve encouraged Pakistan to take stronger steps to ensure that the Taliban either come to the negotiating table or are expelled back into Afghanistan rather than enjoy safe haven outside of the country.”

She said that she wanted Pakistan to give a strict message to the Taliban that they should either negotiate or they might be expelled from the country. On a related note, Wells is scheduled to arrive in Delhi on Thursday where she will have talks with Indian officials on September 6 for the upcoming 2+2 dialogue.

She is also scheduled to attend an Indian Ocean conference organised by Ram Madhav’s India Foundation in Hanoi on August 27-28, which will also be attended by External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj. Speaking on the US-India ties, Wells added, “We’re expanding our diplomatic engagement with the Indian Ocean Rim Association  (IORA) lending its expertise to the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium, to pursue a collective action on regional maritime security issues.”

Wells’ statement on engaging with the IORA comes at a time when a new report on Indian Ocean regional security has been released by the think tanks of the US, Japan, Australia and India. According to the think tanks, Australia, India, Japan and the US should work with partner countries to oppose the establishment of permanent Chinese military bases in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). The think tanks also suggested that Quad nations should work in the IOR to help maintain independent security and economic policies by supporting high-quality alternatives to unilateral Chinese investments and “political alignments with regional objectives”.

The report said, “Australia, India, Japan and the US should work with partner countries to oppose the establishment of permanent Chinese military bases in the IOR. This should include demonstrating to China that its security needs can be met through cooperation and consultation with other nations and without recourse to a disruptive unilateral military presence.”

As per the think tanks, India should bring Australia into the Malabar naval exercises which India has resisted until now. It said,  “Australia, India, Japan and the US should enhance sea land defence capabilities in the Indian Ocean.”