Under Trump presidency, US will follow pragmatic policies towards India and Pakistan, says expert

By Smita Prakash Washington D.C (United States), Nov. 5 (ANI): Author and a strategic affairs expert, Gregory Copley has said that the United States will introduce and follow pragmatic policies towards India and Pakistan should Donald Trump become the President of the United States. In an exclusive interview given to ANI here, Copley said that a Trump presidency would break the mould of a currently declining U.S. influence in South East Asia, South Asia-India Pacific region. Copley further said that it might take a few months, or even years for the Trump presidency to find its feet. "We will see it in the form of pragmatic policies by the U.S. towards India and Pakistan which will be mutually beneficial to all the states of India, Pakistan and the United States," he said. Copley said economically the United States needed to start focusing on the Indo Pacific region, particularly the Indian Ocean Region. "This has not been done under the previous administration, and it's time to focus on the Indo-Pacific, and certainly the message is getting into the Trump camp about how important that is," he said. When asked about the Hillary Clinton presidency, and whether it will be a continuation of the Obama administration or, will there be change in the way America looks at South Asia, Copley said the Obama administration's policies towards South Asia were established by Hillary Clinton and she did not do a very good job there. "We are seeing the result the declining U.S. ability to influence events in East Asia and the Indian Ocean. Yes, it will make a continuation of Obama administration policies, which will be detrimental to the allies in the region who have not been able to count on the consistent US capabilities in the region," he said. Asked about China's role in the decision making process in America with regard to South Asia, he said, "There has been nothing creative and no attempt in a meaningful way for the U.S. to recognize the change in the strategic architecture in Euro-Asia and in the Indo-Pacific." "It (the U.S.) needs to understand that whatever it does now, it has to be entirely different from what it's being doing for the past 10 or 20 years, because China has broken out of its policy of containment, India itself is rising as a strategic power and is the only counter balance really to China apart from Japan. The South East Asian network which had included The Philippines and the Republican of China is now broken up, and the U.S. has failed to acknowledge the Republic of China and Taiwan, whereas, India has been paying attention to Taiwan and trying to build a regional consensus," Copley said. He said that United States has to pay much greater attention to India, ASEAN, Taiwan, Japan, and for that matter, Australia, which is a pivotal player in that region as well, and added that under the Trump presidency, it would all change. (ANI)