Indo-US to jointly fight terrorism

The visiting US Defence Secretary James Mattis and India's Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held talks and resolved to fight terrorism jointly. Both agreed to hold to account those who use terrorism as the instrument of state policy and dismantle the infrastructure that supports it. In the recent years, undoubtedly, the US has come closer to India and strengthened defence and strategic ties with it. But as far as the terrorism to be used as the instrument of state policy is concerned, it is no secret which country adopts this. It is also no secret which country is terrorists' safe havens. The US is the sole superpower of the world. It is also the oldest democracy and India is the largest one in the world. Both are natural allies. Both understand democratic values and both respect them. But in Pakistan despite being the democratically elected government in power, its military rules the roosts. No country knows Pakistan better than the US. Pakistan has been the blue-eyed boy of the US since its inception. In the last few years, especially, after 9/11 when the tentacles of terrorism spread to the US, it started to maintain some distance from it. Now, Pakistan has gone completely into the lap of China. But one thing is certain that when the US' own national interest suffers, it leaves no stone unturned to plug the loopholes existing wherever. Even after a long time, the US got its most wanted terrorist Al-Qaeda boss Osama binLaden killed in Abbottabad near Karachi in Pakistan by its tried and tested Navy SEAL personnel. The US sent its navy personnel without giving any notice to Pakistan. But if the same thing had been done by India to get its most wanted terrorists living in Pakistan with full state patronage, the US itself would have been the first to raise a hue and cry on the international level. Though the US is a very good friend of India, it must treat its friend on equal footing. Despite the US President's Donald Trump's suggestion that India must play a greater role in Afghanistan, Defence Minister Sitharaman has rightly said that India would not send its military in Afghanistan. India has already been playing a vital role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and strengthening democracy there. It has also been experienced that American dignitary speaks one thing in India and just another in Pakistan. US must warn Pakistan that if they continued to use terrorism as the instrument of the state policy, it would pressurize UN to declare it a terrorist state. The US is still the greatest helper of Pakistan. If the US wanted to fight terrorism to finish in reality, no power on earth can support it. One major take away from the talks was also a categorical statement by Nirmala Sitharaman ruling out any troop contribution in Afghanistan. India's position assumes significance given that under the new Afghan policy, the Trump administration wanted greater participation by India in the war-torn nation. After the meeting, Defence Minister clarified that India won't send boots on the ground in Afghanistan and will continue its development and reconstruction efforts in the country. The two countries have agreed to expand their maritime engagements explore additional and specialized military-to-military exercises and re-energise technology sharing, co-development and co-production under Make in India in the defence sector. The two countries agreed that the full implementation of the status of a Major Defence Partner given by the US to India will provide further momentum to their collaboration on defence technology and manufacturing. They also discussed issues relating to maritime security in the Indian Ocean and the broader Asia-Pacific Region as well as regional connectivity issues. It is good that India's strategic partnership with the US is getting stronger and stronger. The need of the hour for the US is to act against the country which has used terrorism as the instrument of state policy and provided safe havens for terrorists.