India on Wednesday told the US that its South Asia policy would not succeed until Pakistan continues to be a sanctuary for terrorists. New De­lhi’s message was delivered to the visiting US secretary of state Rex Tillerson, who arrived here from Islamabad after a stopover in Afgh­anistan. This is Tillerson’s first visit to India days after his Diwali speech elaborated US administration’s rec­o­gnition of New Delhi as an influential regional player.

Tillerson, who is the second significant visitor from the US after defence secretary James Mattis, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also met external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and national security advisor Ajit Doval.

Describing India and US as natural allies, Tillerson assured that the two countries were shoulder to shoulder against terror.

Sushma told Tillerson that no country in the world should provide safe havens to terror groups. “Any country backing terrorism must be made responsible and the US-South Asia policy can succeed only when Pakistan acts on terror groups,” she said. New Delhi shared its views on Pakistan after Tillerson said that he had very open frank exchanges with leaders in Islamabad and conveyed Washington’s expectations from them.

“We want to work with Pakistan in a positive way as we think this is in their interest in long run,” he said. Tillerson also acknowledged that “terrorist safe havens will not be tolerated”.

India and the US discussed that no country in the world should provide safe havens to terror groups. Any country backing terrorism must be made responsible as New Delhi asserted that the US South Asia policy can succeed only when Pakistan acts on terror groups. India said that recent attacks in Afghanistan were a proof that safe havens and supporters of terrorism are active and Pakistan needs to act on this.

Acknowledging that India’s ties with US had grown after Prime Minister Modi’s meeting with US president Donald Trump, Swaraj noted that the defence and strategic ties have deepened. The US secretary of state promised to provide the best technology for India’s military modernisation as he said that the US was looking forward to the sale of F16 and F18 fighter jets to Indian Air Force.

But at the same time, India conveyed its concerns over the US visa policy. Sushma Swaraj said that important contributions of Indians working in the US on H-1B visa should be taken into consideration.

“In this regard, we have also discussed the very significant contribution to the US economy of Indian skilled professionals who travel and work under H1-B and L-1 visa programmes. I have also sought secretary Tillerson’s support for resolution of long-pending issue of tatalisation and asked that nothing should be done by the US which adversely affects India’s interests,” she said.