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U.S. wants stronger India economic, defence ties given China's rise: Tillerson

By Jonathan Landay and David Brunnstrom

 

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson participates in the first meeting of the U.S. National Space Council at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, U.S. October 5, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/Files

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said before a visit to India next week that the Trump administration wanted to "dramatically deepen" cooperation with New Delhi, seeing it as a key partner in the face of negative Chinese influence in Asia.

 

Speaking on Wednesday, less than a month before President Donald Trump is due to make his first state visit to China, Tillerson said the United States had begun to discuss creating alternatives to Chinese infrastructure financing in Asia.

 

In another comment likely to upset Beijing, he said Washington saw room to invite others, including Australia, to join U.S.-India-Japan security cooperation, something Beijing has opposed as an attempt by democracies to gang up on it.

 

The remarks coincide with the start of a week-long Chinese Communist Party congress at which President Xi Jinping is seeking to further consolidate his power.

 

"The United States seeks constructive relations with China, but we will not shrink from China's challenges to the rules-based order and where China subverts the sovereignty of neighbouring countries and disadvantages the U.S. and our friends," Tillerson told the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

 

"India and the United States should be in the business of equipping other countries to defend their sovereignty, build greater connectivity, and have a louder voice in a regional architecture that promotes their interests and develops their economies," Tillerson added.

 

The U.S. decision to expand relations with India almost certainly will upset India's rival, Pakistan, where Tillerson also will stop next week, said a senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

 

Pakistan was the main U.S. ally in South Asia for decades, but U.S. officials are frustrated with what they charge has been Pakistan's failure to cut support for the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, where the administration wants India to play a bigger role in economic development.

 

As part of a South Asia strategy unveiled by Trump in August, Tillerson is expected to press Islamabad, which denies aiding the Taliban, to take stronger steps against extremists and allied groups and intensify efforts to pressure them to agree to peace talks with Kabul.

 

"We expect Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorist groups based there that threaten its own people and the broader region," Tillerson said.

 

Trump has threatened further cuts in U.S. aid to Pakistan if it fails to cooperate.

 

China, a strategic rival to the United States and India, is also vital to Trump's efforts to roll back North Korea's efforts to create nuclear-armed missiles capable of reaching the United States, an issue expected to top the agenda in Trump's Nov. 8-10 Beijing visit.

 

A senior State Department official defended the timing of the speech, saying Tillerson also said he wanted a constructive relationship with China.

 

"For many decades the United States has supported China's rise," said the official. "We've also supported India's rise. But those two countries have risen very differently."

 

Tillerson did not say what he meant by creating an alternative to Chinese infrastructure financing, but said the Trump administration had begun a "quiet conversation" with some emerging East Asian democracies at a summit in August.

 

He said Chinese financing was saddling countries with "enormous" debts and failing to create jobs.

 

"We think it's important that we begin to develop some means of countering that with alternative financing measures."

 

"We will not be able to compete with the kind of terms that China offers, but countries have to decide what are they willing to pay to secure their sovereignty and their future control of their economies and we've had those discussions with them as well," he said.

 

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Jonathan Landay; Editing by James Dalgleish)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-10-19

[tryasimight]

Good...the Chinese influence needs to be scaled back somewhat. Myanmar is suffering from the Chinese investments.

[captpkapoor]

China has territorial disputes with every single land or maritime neighbour, and even some who are not direct neighbours, due to an insatiable greed for more. It never stops. They started by gobbling up Tibet in the 1950s, and it hasn't ended by a long shot.

 

As for Pakistan, for years they've been milking the US for billions of dollars pretending to be their allies in fighting terrorism, while doing the exact opposite. Despite many cautionary voices in previous administrations, who were overlooked as the US had no choice but to use Pakistani territory and logistics bases, it has now finally been accepted that Pakistan can never be an ally. India, with its democratic (albeit with some flaws) traditions, secular and all-absorbing nature (disregard a few fringe elements in a nation of 1.3 billion), educated English speaking workforce, is a natural ally of the US. 

[hawker9000]

India is a good choice.  They have grievances with Chinese encroachment and arrogance almost as deep as anyone else in the region.

[captpkapoor]

 

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has dramatically ramped up drone strikes on Pakistan in the past week after the rescue of a Canadian-American couple and their three children, purportedly with Islamabad's help. High-intensity and frequent strikes -- of the kind not seen since 2010, when they averaged two a week -- have resumed, amid signs that things are not all hunky-dory between the two countries despite both sides talking nice on the rescue issue.

Half a dozen drone strikes have rained missiles in Pakistan's Kurram Agency following the rather shady "rescue" of the Canadian-American couple by the Pakistani military, which initially claimed that they were freed after a firefight with Taliban when they were being transported across the Pak-Afghan border. The "rescue" was reportedly based on US intelligence inputs, resulting in the interception of the vehicle on the Pakistani side of the border, and culminating in a clash in which all the hostage-takers were conveniently either reported killed or escaped.

But the Trump administration embarrassed Islamabad by publicly calling out Pakistan's lies, with both Vice President Mike Pence and CIA Director Mike Pompeo saying the couple (and their three children) was being held in Pakistan, and not Afghanistan. "The Vice President thanked (Pakistan's Prime Minister) Abbasi for his government's assistance in recovering US and Canadian hostages that were being held captive by the Haqqani Taliban Network in the tribal areas of Pakistan," a White House readout of Pence's call to the Pakistani leader said.

There was no mention of Afghanistan or their crossing the border into Pakistan, and CIA director Mike Pompeo, too, confirmed the hostages were being held inside Pakistan, while demanding that Pakistan deny safe havens to the Taliban.

There was also an ominous note in the Pence readout. "Vice President Pence noted this effort as an important development in Pakistan's support to the US strategy against terrorism in the region, but highlighted that cooperation against militant groups must be continued and sustained," it said. "Just as he did during the meeting the two had in New York last month, the Vice President again discussed ways that Pakistan could work with the United States and others to bolster stability and security for all in South Asia."

The US media had expressed skepticism about the rescue story dished out by the Pakistani military, given its long and close ties with the Haqqani network, which is alleged to have kept the Canadian-American couple hostage for more than five years. One explanation for their "rescue" soon after the return from U.S of Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khwaja Asif was the ultimate he received in Washington, following up on the blunt warning issued by the President and his senior advisors that the time had come for punitive action against Islamabad.
 

[zydeco]

On 10/20/2017 at 4:45 AM, hawker9000 said:

India is a good choice.  They have grievances with Chinese encroachment and arrogance almost as deep as anyone else in the region.

Yes, but they are also incompetent, with a stratified society that China can only dream about. But because they're a nuclear power, I suppose the ineptitude of their military will not hurt too much.