United States Defence Secretary James Mattis on Tuesday said that Pakistan can have strong economic benefits from India if it finds a way to carry out its international responsibilities and stops facilitating any kind of safe havens for terrorist groups on its soil. Mattis made the statement while addressing top US lawmakers.
Mattis told Senate Armed Services Committee that the Trump administration is being clear and firm on what it expects from Pakistan.
The statement from the Defence Secretary comes weeks after US President Donald Trump announced his South Asia policy where he took a tough stance on Pakistan and said that India had a greater role to assist Afghanistan.
"There are a number of lines of effort being put together now in Secretary of Treasury's office, Secretary of State's office, my own office, the intel agencies. We are also working with Secretary General Stoltenberg to ensure that NATO's equities are brought to bear," Mattis said responding to a question on why would Pakistan change its mind on terrorist safe havens this time, PTI reported.
Mattis noted that India has a role to play as Pakistan's neighbour and can potentially provide very strong economic benefits to Pakistan if Islamabad ceases to have safe havens for terrorists and figures out a way to carry out its international responsibilities.
"There's a great deal that Pakistan can benefit economically, diplomatically, financially for its government; economically for its people; by finally sensing that the tide has shifted against this," Mattis said.
The Defence Secretary added that the Trump administration is of the opinion that unless safe havens are removed, it will be difficult to sustain any form of stabilisation in South Asia, not just in Afghanistan, but certainly anywhere around Pakistan and India.
Mattis said that Pakistan has a "convoluted history" with terrorism and that there is no doubt that terrorists and militant groups have used the nation as a haven to conduct attacks in other countries, and not just in Afghanistan.
"We've seen the attacks on India, as well. At the same time, probably few nations, perhaps none, have lost as many troops fighting terrorists as they have," Mattis said.
Senator John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that the US President has said that he would change US approach to Pakistan, which continues to harbour militants and terrorists who target US service members and officials.
"But we still do not know what specific steps the United States will take to convince or compel Pakistan to change its behaviour, or what costs we will impose if Pakistan fails to do so," McCain said.
