India a partner for peace in Afghanistan, says Tillerson

AVA- “As we implement President Trump’s new South Asia strategy, we will turn to our partners to ensure greater stability in Afghanistan and throughout the region. India is a partner for peace in Afghanistan and we welcome their assistance efforts,” Tillerson said in a major India policy speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a top American think-tank.

Pakistan, too, is an important U.S. partner in South Asia, he said, adding that their relationships in the region stand on their own merits.

“We expect Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorist groups based within their own borders that threaten their own people and the broader region. In doing so, Pakistan furthers stability and peace for itself and its neighbors, and improves its own international standing,” Tillerson said.

Responding to questions later, Tillerson said the Afghan Government have to be committed to being open to addressing the full needs of the very ethnically diverse culture that exists in the country and its own history as well.

“We think that is achievable and we can have a stable, peaceful Afghanistan. When that happens, a big threat is removed from Pakistan’s future stability as well, which then creates a better condition for India-Pakistan relationships,” he said.

“So we see it as not just one issue, but a means of stabilizing the entire region. And we intend to work closely with India and with Pakistan to, we hope, ease tensions along their border as well,” Tillerson said.

Pakistan, he said, has two very troubled borders. “And we’d like to help them take the tension down on both of those and secure a future stable Pakistan Government which we think improves relations in the region as well,” he said.

Asserting that Afghanistan issue can be resolved by addressing the regional challenges, Tillerson said Pakistan and India are the two important element of that.

“India is an important element of how we achieve the ultimate objective, which is a stable Afghanistan which no longer serves as a platform for terrorist organizations. Our policy, quite simply, on terrorism is that we will deny terrorists the opportunity, the means, the location, the wherewithal, the financing, the ability to organize and carry out attacks against Americans at home and abroad, anywhere in the world,” he said.

“Clearly the threat to that policy finds its locus in many ways in Afghanistan. And so, to the extent we can remove that as an opportunity for terrorism in Afghanistan, the greatest beneficiaries are going to be Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said.

Tillerson said India’s important role is in providing development assistance to Afghanistan as they move forward to create better economic conditions that provide for the needs of a very diverse ethnic group of people in Afghanistan.

“So it is about a commitment, a message to the Taliban and other elements that we’re not going anywhere. We’ll be here as long as it takes for you to change your mind and decide you want to engage with the Afghan Government in a reconciliation process and develop a form of government that does suit the needs of the culture of Afghanistan,” Tillerson said.