India- US Relations: Will Trump Stop Pakistan Sponsered Terrorism?
The return of Donald Trump is a desired result for India. As everyone knows, Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have a close relationship. "I am not going to start wars; I am going to stop them," declared Donald Trump in his victory speech. Since we want total peace in our neighbourhood, this has given Indians hope.
India is extremely concerned about the recent events in Bangladesh. We are worried about the radicalism and fundamentalism in Bangladesh. It is well known that the "deep State" and the "US" were involved in overthrowing PM Sheikh Hasina's government.
Can we infer from Donald Trump's remarks that his administration would take
significant and stringent measures to combat Pakistan-sponsored terrorism?
During his first tenure, although it was not consistent,
Donald Trump's presidency represented a shift in US policy toward Pakistan. Due
to the Trump administration's requirement for collaboration with Pakistan on
the Afghan peace process, bilateral relations between the US and Pakistan
improved in the latter years of the Trump administration after being tense
during the first two years of the government.
Under Trump, there was a discernible re-evaluation of
US-Pakistan relations between 2016 and 2018, with increased worries over
Pakistan's assistance for terrorist groups—a worry that the US shares with
India.
The Indian leadership
deliberately called attention to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and urged the US
to take tougher measures and reevaluate its relationship with Pakistan by
leveraging the elite ties between India and the US and the public friendship between
Trump and Modi.
For example, during a visit to India in September 2017,
Mattis made a subtly critical remark about Pakistan: "Terrorist safe
havens cannot be tolerated."
Trump openly criticized Pakistan for aiding terrorism when
he stated, We cannot remain silent any longer regarding the Taliban, Pakistan's
safe havens for terrorist groups, other
organizations that are dangerous to the area and beyond. Joining our endeavor
in Afghanistan has several benefits for Pakistan. If it keeps harboring
terrorists and criminals, it will lose a lot.
He stated in January 2018 that "American governments
have foolishly" provided Islamabad with 33 billion dollars in aid over the
past 15 years, providing "safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in
Afghanistan."
2018 saw the US halt military sales and assistance payments
and take the lead in getting Pakistan added to the Financial Action Task
Force's (FATF) "grey-list."
In 2019, at the US-India 2 + 2 dialogue in
Washington, DC, S Jaishankar reflected on the convergence of the US and Indian
perspectives on this issue, saying, "What we heard was a very clear position
from the American side which was for them to take immediate, sustained, and
irreversible action regarding the fact that territory under their control is
being used for terrorism."
Now in Trump’s second term, we can expect that he will come
up strongly against terrorism and terrorist supporting countries like Pakistan.
If he really means in his words that he wants to stop the wars, then he should.
That’s what we can expect right now.
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