The United States recently included India in the “Vancouver Group” to discuss how to mount pressure on North Korea and the nuclear threat it presents. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland announced earlier this week that the group will be meeting on Jan. 16.
The meet will be attended by foreign ministers of Australia, Belgium, Britain, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.
“But we also obviously are including other important parties — the Republic of Korea, Japan, India, Sweden, and others, who we think are important to have engaged in this meeting,” Tillerson told reporters, according to PTI. “The participating countries at the level of foreign minister will be discussing how to improve the effectiveness of the current pressure campaign.”
The pressure campaign is intended to lead to talks, Tillerson said, adding that America-led international community cannot talk unless North Korea is ready to talk. “And I think as we’ve indicated, we’re waiting for them to indicate a readiness to talk,” Tillerson said. “But what’s important for North Korea to know is that this pressure campaign will not abate. We will not be rolling any of it back. It will only be intensified as time goes by. It will remain in place until they agree to give up their nuclear weapons and allow us to verify that that is in fact what they have done,” he added.
“We’re confident that this campaign of international pressure will lead to the best outcome for the whole world, I think the only outcome for the whole world, which is a diplomatic path to a resolution of this crisis, a diplomatic path to the outcome that I think we all believe in, which is a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula,” Freeland said.
The countries scheduled to meet in January in Ottawa include those that were originally part of the Korean conflict in the 1950s and others like India, who have gained significance in global economy and politics.
The United States in its recently released National Security Strategy (NSS) called India a leading global power and said it would support its leadership role in the Indo-Pacific region, which it defines as the region from the west coast of India to the western shores of the United States.
The Donald Trump administration is also engaged with India through a quadrilateral cooperation with Australia and Japan.
North Korea has stepped up its missile program, firing 23 missiles since February this year. The Kim Jong Un-led regime has claimed that it now has the technology to attack any part of the United States. The tension was further fired up recently with U.S. President Donald Trump mocking Jong Un.
India recently vowed to stop all trade with North Korea. However, a recent report claimed that India violated the United Nations’ sanctions on trading with the isolated country. India has facilitated front companies, financial transactions, and other business activities with North Korea, the report said.