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.

 Jai Hind!

Harsh Pargat

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