ISLAMABAD – Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the United Nations, said onThursday her country is urging Pakistan more strongly not to give safehaven to terrorists.
She said Pakistan has been cooperating with the United States, butWashington cannot accept any government protecting terrorists.
“We are communicating this message to Pakistan more strongly than in thepast and we hope to see changes,” Haley told members of the ObserverResearch Foundation, an Indian think tank.
Pakistan’s cooperation is seen as key to the success of President DonaldTrump’s Afghanistan policy. The country is under pressure from Washingtonand the Afghan government who accused it of offering safe haven tomilitants blamed for attacks in Afghanistan, a charge Islamabad denies.Pakistan also insists its influence over the Taliban has been exaggerated.
Earlier in the day, Haley undertook an interfaith journey in New Delhi,visiting a Hindu temple, a Sikh shrine, a mosque and a church in old partsof the capital.
Haley, who was born in South Carolina to Sikh immigrants from the northernIndian state of Punjab, rolled breads at the Sikh shrine, a religious wayof paying obeisance to Sikh gurus.
After visiting the Jama Masjid, one of India’s largest mosques, sheinteracted with a child sitting outside.
She is on her first visit to India since becoming the US ambassador to theUnited Nations in 2017. She met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modiand External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday.
Haley visited India in 2014 when she was governor of South Carolina. -Agencies