India can help US keep a watch on Pakistan: Haley
UNRELENTING On India’s demand for entry into the UN, envoy makes it clear that key would be to ‘not touch’ the issue of veto power We cannot tolerate this (Pakistan) government or any other government giving safe haven to terrorists who target Americans
NIKKI HALEY, US envoy to UN
US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Tuesday that America was open to expanding the permanent membership of the UN Security Council, and felt that India should play a greater role in Afghanistan and help the US “keep an eye on Pakistan”.
Referring to President Donald Trump’s new South Asia policy and his “tougher approach” towards Pakistan, Haley said: “Pakistan has been a partner to the US at times. We value and respect that. But, we cannot tolerate this government or any other government giving safe haven to terrorists who target Americans. This new approach will require understanding and restraint from both Pakistan and India.”
Trump has been urging India to do more in Afghanistan.
“Having them help not only with infrastructure and the aide that they can give towards rebuilding Afghanistan, (They can) also help us to keep an eye on Pakistan,” Haley said at a discussion hosted by the India-US Friendship Council.
On India’s demand for entry into the UN, she said the key would be to “not touch” the issue of veto power that current members are neither willing to share nor give up.
UN reforms, Haley said, “is much more about the veto”. The permanent-five who have veto — the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China — “none of them wants to give that up”.
The “key to getting India on the Security Council would have to be not touch the veto,” Haley, an Indian American, added, in a rare public discussion of the American position on India’s claim to a permanent UNSC seat, which was first endorsed by former president Barack Obama in a
WASHINGTON:
visit to India in 2010.
India has staked a claim to a permanent seat on a reformed UN security council, with all the same powers, but along with other members of the G-4 pressure group — Germany, Japan and Brazil — has backed deferred and phased rollout of the veto power after a transition period of 15 years.
The Trump administration reiterated US support for India during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit last June. Vice-president Mike Pence chipped in with his support in a speech to a trade body the next day. And, now the US ambassador to UN, which was a first for her, according to India watchers.