Coping with a double-faced Trump

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Need to walk a fine line

Secretary of State  Rex Tillerson followed by  Vice President  Mike Pence has  thanked  Pakistan for its  help in  the safe recovery of a US-Canadian family from the terrorists.  The statements would no doubt  create goodwill for the US in Pakistan provided these were not seen to be a part of Washington’s all-too-familiar  good cop, bad cop policy. Right on the heels of the statements  come the inevitable remarks by US ambassador to UN Nikkey Haley reeking of distrust. Washington, she said, would seek India’s help to keep an eye on Pakistan as it cannot tolerate any government that shelters terrorists and that the US looked forward to India in resolving the Afghan conflict. Haley’s statement is most inappropriate at a time when Pak-US relations are moving towards improvement. Pakistan does not see any role whatsoever for India in resolving the conflict.

 

Secretary  of State Tillerson’s address at the Center for Strategic Studies  was designed to set the stage for his  visit next week to  New Delhi. Both Haley and Tillerson are keen to  subdue the wave of criticism that has surfaced in India after what was seen as an about turn by  Trump administration on its policy towards Pakistan. Trump is being widely described as unpredictable and capable of multiple about turns.  Tillerson took the  opportunity to bracket together  the US  and India as  the world’s “two greatest democracies”, while holding China responsible for  undermining the so called rules-based international order. The US and India, he said,  share a vision of the future  and  are increasingly global partners with growing strategic convergence. It remains to be seen whether the remarks can change the popular perception of Trump’s  unreliability in India.

 

Tillerson however did well not to directly criticise China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of which CPEC is a part.  There is a need on the part of  Pakistan to work together with the US  and Afghanistan in fighting terrorism while persuading  both  that India has no role in suppressing  the insurgency.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Yes indeed ,no other country has the role but Pakistan in stopping terror and letting people of Afghanistan to live in peace
    Pakistan want to disrupt governance in Afghanistan via it’s T-regimen to such an extent that it goes bankrupt, and then China would come to take over its resources in disguise of aid, that’s the sole reason boycotted countries like China and Pakistan still poke there noses in Afghanistans internal matters in the name of bilateral, trilateral junks

    India is in constructive mode, Pakistan in destructive mode, China as always opportunistic mode

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