Plain-speaking Donald Trump welcome

US President Donald Trump has been rather effusive in his praise of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling him a great leader. Now, in his first National Security Strategy, unveiled on Monday, Trump has described India as a “leading global power”. This is a huge improvement on President Barack Obama’s last NSS document which had called India a “regional provider of security”, and, prior to that, on the 2010 NSS, which had termed India one of the “21st century centers of influence.” In other words, under Modi, the American perception of India has undergone a vast change for the better.

The latest NSS commits the US to increase quadrilateral cooperation with India, Japan and Australia. No question, the growing hegemonic threat from an aggressive and expansionist China is beginning to register on the antennae of the security and strategic community in Washington. And Trump has no hesitation to catch the bull by its horns, as it were, unlike some of his predecessors who plumped for status quoist approach towards a rising and threatening China. The 68-page document refers to the India-US defense relationship in the Indo-Pacific region, according India a prominent role in South and Central Asia. More importantly, it virtually warns Pakistan, hoping that it would refrain from destabilising the region and help create a stable and self-reliant Afghanistan. “We have made clear to Pakistan that while we desire continued partnership, we must see decisive action against terrorist groups operating on their territory.”

Stating that the US has made “massive payments” every year to Pakistan, the latter must help. Pakistan has received a whopping $33 billion since the 9/11 attack, though much of it has been siphoned off to buy arms for use against India or misappropriated for private gains.  Abandoning standard diplomatese, the document uses rather sharp words to state most unambiguously what the US expects Pakistan to do: “We will press Pakistan to intensify its counter-terrorism efforts, since no partnership can survive a country’s support for militants and terrorists who target a partner’s own service members and officials.” This was a reference to the periodic attacks by the Taliban militants against the US targets in Afghanistan in which a number of Afghan security personnel were killed. On an earlier occasion too, Trump had publicly stated that “Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence and terror”, asking it to demonstrate its commitment to “civilisational order”.

With China in mind, the NSS document commits the US policy to deepen strategic partnership with India and support her leadership role in Indian Ocean security throughout the broader region. In view of the threat posed by China’s One Belt One Road Project, which India declined to join, and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the NSS committed the US to the protection of national sovereignties of the countries in the region against the Chinese effort to buy influence through injection of military and financial aid. It is notable that a lot of sensible Pakistanis are concerned at the real prospect of the Chinese replicating the old East India Company model to bind them down in debt and military aid. The Chinese financial help, through expensive projects or otherwise in cash, to Sri Lanka and Maldives has virtually crippled their independent foreign policy. Nepal, too, is in real danger of compromising its sovereignty for the Chinese dollars. Calling for a close partnership between India and the US, the NSS policy states that it would help contribute to peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.

Predictably, Pakistan reacted angrily to its characterisation as a destabilising force in the region. Rejecting the accusations in the authoritative official policy document of the US, a Foreign Office statement in Islamabad said that Pakistan trotted out the hackneyed argument that it “continues to suffer state-sponsored terrorism, funded and abetted by our neighbours through proxies”.  Of course, outside Pakistan, there would be no takers for Pakistan’s clumsy attempt to bracket India with itself, but given that the US, along with most countries, sees Pakistan as the most “dangerous place in the world”, it effectively nails the Pakistani lie. However, India will be wrong to rely on the US to pull its irons out of the fires burning in the region. The US under Trump has begun to take the Chinese expansionist threat seriously, and wants to stop its encroachment in the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific, if for nothing else than to ensure the sea lanes remain free for trade and commerce. But, blunting the Pakistani mischief against India would require greater Indian effort, not the US’s, regardless of the high praise for India from President Trump.