By Ajai Shukla
Business Standard, 29th June 18
Nikki Haley, America’s
envoy to the United Nations and reputedly a confidant of President Donald
Trump, stated in New Delhi on Thursday that the last minute postponement of a
high-level US-India meeting did not reflect any tensions or disagreements in
the relationship between the two countries.
On Wednesday, US
Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo had called up Indian Foreign Minister Sushma
Swaraj to postpone a “two-plus-two” meeting on unspecified grounds. The
meeting, scheduled for July 6 in Washington, was between Pompeo, US Secretary
of Defense Jim Mattis, Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
“The delay in that meeting was completely
unrelated to India. The time and location are being rescheduled now. It will
happen very soon. This is an important sign of how much our defence and
security has grown in recent years; a new level of strategic confidence in our
partnership”, said Haley.
This is the second
time the “two-plus-two” meeting has been postponed. Originally planned for
April, it was put off after Trump fired then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
in March and his successor, Pompeo, had to be confirmed by the US Congress
before assuming office.
Hailing the two-plus-two dialogue as “a new
milestone”, Haley said, “[The US-India] relationship is stronger now, and the
opportunities greater now than they have ever been.”
Pressing the right
buttons on Pakistan, Haley said the Trump administration values Pakistan as a
partner, but it would never tolerate that country becoming a haven for
terrorists.”
Haley took a swipe at China’s
Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), saying that project disrespected countries’ sovereign
rights.
She contrasted that
with India’s vision for free trade in the Indo-Pacific, hailing Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s allusion to this in his speech on June 1 at the Shangri-La Dialogue in
Singapore.
Downplaying trade disagreements
as “growing pains”, Haley pointing to the doubling of trade volumes over recent
years. “The fact that we’re talking about trade is a
good thing… Where you have this many discussions, it means you have a lot in
common. It means you’re doing more business together. It means you’re
communicating more. And it means that you’re going through the growing pains of
doing that.”
Even so, there are
growing trade disputes between Washington and New Delhi. After Trump hiked
tariffs on Indian steel and aluminium, India raised import duties on US farm
products last week.
Asked about US
sanctions on Iran, which could create difficulties in India-Iran ties, Haley indicated
India would face increased pressure to reduce dealings with Iran.
“I did [talk about this] with Prime Minister Modi and… I think India
also recognises the threat from Iran. The US is going to continue to try and
work with our partners, our friends and our allies to make sure that we are all
pushing Iran to be a good, accountable, international member”, she said.
“We’re going to keep the pressure on Iran
and hope that other countries will join us because in our eyes, Iran is the
next North Korea”, said Haley.
In remarks that will go down well in New
Delhi after a controversial report from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC)
slammed India’s record in Kashmir, Haley explained why America walked out of
the body.
Sharply criticising the UNHRC, Haley said
serial human rights violators, including Venezuela, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China
and the Democratic Republic of Congo got into the Council to make sure they did
not get called out for human rights.
“If the Human Rights Council doesn’t do
anything, why would the US give them credibility?” asked Haley. “We will be our
own human rights council. And we will continue to bring up the issues that we
think are important.”
In an allusion to Haley’s reported
presidential ambitions, she was asked when would “a woman of Indian origin, a
Republican, run for high office?” Unfazed, she replied: “What I can tell you is
that a woman of Indian origin is trying to survive the job that she has now.”
Haley, a second-generation American born to
Sikh parents in North Carolina, visited a temple, mosque, gurdwara and church
earlier on Thursday.
New Delhi has a very strong lobby that highlights the USA narrative under the garb of promoting Indo-US ties. It is not very hard to figure out who these Think Tanks and media organisations are. There are sufficient publications that are dished out regularly to carry forward this narrative. Curbs on visas, sanctions for weapons procurement, case in WTO against minimum support prices in agriculture, tariffs on Indian trade, sermons on Iran---. Apparently none of these issues curbs the enthusiasm of champions of the western world order. And, of course, China is the devil!
ReplyDeleteLovely responses from her. I wonder what 56 inch chest will say or do now. We all know Pakistan does what it likes. Whilst she was talking about it, they released head of ASWJ group. They(ASWJ) have blood of our soldiers on the their hands and they will contest elections in Pak. Just as Moodi and his army bumpkin have realised that PA is no push over. They don't worry about BJP/RSS threats, their culture is different to ours, they actually like fighting. Just see how their people behave compared to indians abroad. Pakistan and their media are actually LAUGHING at bjp's SUR-GI-KAL strike. IA is becoming a political tool and people are laughing at it too. Hope the next chief is able to bring it back to where it belongs.
ReplyDeletePrasun