Kathmandu: Outgoing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on 10 November that the US is “not finished yet” when it comes to getting tough to China.
Pompeo has made it a point these days to pounce aggressively upon China perhaps to create problems for incoming President next year when he will have to deal with China.
Mike Pompeo, as is believed, has used some of his strongest words ever made against China while describing the Beijing regime during a speech made at the Ronald Reagan Institute detailing the administration’s China policies.
He is hoping Biden to continue with the Trump policy on China.
While, on the one hand, Mike Pompeo is verbally attacking China, on the other, former top US diplomat, Henry Kissinger stresses the need to begin talks with the Chinese regime as soon as possible.
Kissinger says, “The incoming US administration should move quickly to restore lines of communication with China or risk a crisis that could escalate into a military conflict.
The veteran US diplomat Kissinger (97) further says that “unless there is a sound basis for some cooperative action, the world will slide into a catastrophe comparable to World War I, and that America and China are now drifting increasingly toward confrontation, and they are conducting their diplomacy in a confrontational way”.
Nepal takes this drift to be dangerous in the political dimension.
Kissinger made these alarming statement during the opening session of the Bloomberg Economy Forum held on 16 November, wherein, he was interviewed by the Bloomberg Editor in Chief John Micklethwait.
Kissinger, whose persistent active-quiet diplomacy made President Nixon’s China visit possible in the year 1972.
Now taking up Pompeo’s threat loaded speech first made at the Reagan Institute reveals the “mood, tone and the attitude” of the outgoing US top diplomat towards China who very conveniently forgets that he has soon to vacate the State Department and that his sharp comments made on China may or may not be adopted by the incoming US Administration of President Joe Biden.
President Joe and his “team” of foreign policy advisors will define and decide on what is to be done with China?
By then Pompeo will have gone.
President-elect Joe Biden, as is being disseminated by the Nepali observers, is a sober and reasonable, liberal political personality who understands the gravity of the US-China ties and its likely impact on South Asian politics.
He is not new to the White House.
Pompeo’s speech does tell that he along with President Trump believe in the threat and coercive diplomacy when it comes to the dealing with China which is much similar to what India does to its smaller South Asian neighbours like Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
Diplomacy at times demands cool-head and far-sighted vision.
More so, dealing with China tentatively means a deal being made with a near to an equal, competent and an emerging strong power which has only recently become almost a Super Power that apparently has annoyed the US administration to a greater level. If Pompeo’s language used in China is tough then Kissinger’s contentions are moderate and reconciliatory.
The contrast is visible.
Kissinger knows the world and more so understands the depth of China’s international diplomacy and its economic hold worldwide.
While Pompeo prefers direct confrontation with China that surely aggravates, even more, the already tensed US-China ties then the former ace diplomat suggests easing the current standoff in between the two powers by restoring lines of broken communication.
Confrontation has got to be replaced by reconciliation which is only possible when lines of communications are restored in between the US and China, opine Nepal’s international relations expert.
These international experts also maintain that the incoming US administration shall benefit much if President-elect Joe Biden understands the compelling compulsions of the smaller Asian and South Asian nations and then proceed(s) ahead with the US preferences in the Asian continent more so in the South Asian region now under India subjugation.
The US must have its own eyes to look upon South Asian nations on an individual basis instead of with, the much believed and felt Delhi’s lens.
By the way, the South Asian nations feel threatened when the regional bully with the backing of the US administration coerces the smaller nations and twists their arms to obey to New Delhi dictates and compels them all to follow the tormentor India set rules to be followed by them in their foreign policy conducts.
President-elect Biden will surely have a tough time in resetting and restoring the broken lines of communication with China when he enters the White House.
He will also have to adopt a country to country relations with the countries of South Asia.
The US under Joe Biden must not get carried away with the Indian trickery and thuggery.
Trickery and thuggery are synonymous to Indian establishment under Hindu gang leader PM Modi.
Biden must recall that Modi of the infamy of Gujrat massacre was once persona non grata in the US.
The US needs to understand the issues and problems of the South Asian nations not through its preferred Indian lens.
President Biden has no option left other than to open the lines of communication to which China has equally to reciprocate the US offer with a positive nod keeping in mind that the US is also not a political entity that could be ignored summarily.
In a broader sense, if the US and China reconcile with each other with the start of the Joe Biden’s administration then that would certainly bring in dividends to the entire nations in the Asian continent more so to the South Asian nations and much beyond.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong while talking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, said, “China is an important part of the world for the US, and that President Joe Biden will develop a “framework for an overall constructive relationship with China”, reports the Straits Times writes Yang Sheng and Liu Caiyo for the Global Times on 17 November.
Modest and sane world leaders would like to see the US-China confrontation to defuse and calm down in the larger interest of the world peace, however, some scoundrel and bully nations in South Asia instead wish from their core of the heart that the US-China current tussle escalates to its sole political benefit.
Biden is not that fool, analysts remain assured.
It is India under PM Modi that concludes that with the US backing, Modi will rule over the South Asian nations and much beyond.
The US-India defense agreement signed on 27 October that allows India to share sensitive satellite data amid Delhi’s border tussle with Beijing wherein dreaded expansionist Delhi embraced a shameful defeat.
Media reports confirm the access to such data is considered crucial for attacking enemy’s missiles, drones and other targets with proper accuracy.
Experts say the strengthening of India-US ties is aimed at countering China’s influence in the region which will eventually encourage India not only to tease and poke China now and then but it would also allow India a triumph card to act as a Police State in the already India dominated South Asian region.
After China, Pakistan is the immediate target of the regional scoundrel.
Pakistan knows how India creates a mess in Pakistan.
Will Joe Biden continue with the US-India agreement signed in October last month? Or will prefer a change in some of the clauses of the agreement?
One straight modest tip to President-elect Biden is to secretly ask the US ambassadors to seek their opinions as to what India means to the countries of South Asia?
On top of it all, the incoming President Biden must seek clarifications from the US envoy posted in Delhi as to why he has failed to issue his strong disagreements with the “Islamophobic” Indian government on the plight of the Kashmiri population who have been jailed in the world’s largest prison since 5 August 2019 and also on PM Modi’s treatment with the minority Indian Muslims?
Biden must know all about the February riots that shook Delhi with the near to massacre of the Delhi residing Muslims.
President Biden who is himself a matured foreign policy veteran and understands the Indian manoeuvrings from his last stint in the White House.
As the new President Biden would do well in reassessing/rewriting the fresh US-India defense agreement signed on 27 October which empowers the regional cheat to behave erratically in and around South Asia which in turn may damage the US ties with China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and further aggravate the US ties with Iran.
How Pakistan is being made the target by the Indian State terror machine has best been laid bare by the Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mhd. Qureshi to the national media on 13/14 November.
FM Qureshi said something that would stun the world but not the South Asian nations because these nations have had very “bad and sad” experience with India as a neighbour.
Twisting arms of South Asian nation(s) are the daily routine of India-the regional persecutor.
After damaging Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan through the RAW penetration, the Indian State has been found to have been planning “big devastation and chaos” right inside Pakistan.
Addressing a joint conference on 14 November, Qureshi and the Pakistani army spokesperson, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) director general Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar wherein both stated that a dossier containing “irrefutable evidence” against India would soon be submitted to the UN.
The dossier released by Qureshi came as a shock to the Nepali observers as they came to know that “India’s involvement in sponsoring terrorism in entire Pakistan is emblematic of Pakistan’s new ‘resolve and intent’ that it will not hesitate to counter India outside the conventional battlefield.
The details of the dossier were made public at a joint press conference, as stated earlier, which was duly attended by Qureshi and Gen Babar.
(The dossier should be sent to world capitals through Pakistani diplomatic missions).
The dossier, which is titled “Indian Efforts to Destabilize Pakistan”, will be, as is being said, shared with the UN as well as with the P-5 members i.e. US, UK, China, Russia and France, so declared both FM Qureshi and General Babar.
But will the UN Sec. General Antonio and the UNGA President Volkan Bozkir scold the Indian establishment? Never.
The dossier reveals among other things, “that Indian PM Modi himself is active in running a covert cell against CPEC projects in Pakistan which is sure to disturb the already dead peace in the region and that recent attacks on various facilities in Pakistan were directly managed and led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office.
During the press conference, audiotapes of recorded and intercepted conversations between terror outfits and Indian intelligence agencies were played.
Yet India is not ashamed.
At the press meet, the two Pakistani authorities also shared the names and codes of Indian officials as well as the historic involvement of India in sponsoring Pakistan through proxies.
FM Qureshi also said, “India wants to create unrest in Gilgit-Baltistan and it is operating terrorist training centres”.
“What will it take for the world to respond to India’s terrorist campaign in Afghanistan and Pakistan? This past weekend’s press conference by Foreign Minister Qureshi and Major General Babar has renewed the question of why India continues to be afforded such impunity for its fomenting of terrorist operations aimed at destabilizing and destroying Pakistan, writes Mosharraf Zaidi in an article in The News on 17 November.
The question posed by veteran political analyst Zaidi is highly appropriate and logical which demands convincing answers from the UN and the International community more so by those countries who comprise of the P-5 members i.e. US, UK, China, Russia and France.
The US is more answerable as it is the US which of late has been encouraging India to go berserk in South Asia and beyond.
President Biden must also find the reason as to why the Chinese Defense Minister is touring the South Asian nations?
The more US will encourage India, China will inch closer to SA nations. Biden must not ignore contemporary SA’s compelling politics.
And the seriousness with which the Pakistani Foreign Minister has revealed the nasty, nefarious and the unacceptable immoral and dishonest act of the Indian PM Modi being made against the neighbouring country Pakistan must draw the attention of the liberal Biden and the South Asian academics hope that he (Joe Biden) through his own diplomatic channels verifies the Pakistani bold accusations and takes some stringent actions against PM Modi and warns the latter to correct his wild and highly erratic behaviours.
The UN body too must take up the issue if it is an impartial international body. But is the UN impartial?
Analyst Zaidi further says, “the question merits a response for a wide variety of reasons, chief among them the perception among many Pakistanis that, no matter how much good Pakistan does, it will be punished by the West – and no matter how much bad India does, it will be rewarded”.
It is somehow or the other a subtle message to the incoming US administration under Joe Biden to look into the matter on how India is hell-bent on destabilizing and creating a mess in the Pakistani state and society (and other SA nations included) and the body politic to split the nation into political, social, and tribal/ethnic lines.
President-elect Biden before awarding a license to the Indian regime under fanatic Hindutva leader must “reset” the US ties with India to avoid imminent embarrassment in the immediate future.
Before taking any harsh decisions on China and for that matter on South Asian nations, President Biden is advised to listen to what the Pakistan Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister have said of India last week. Both have almost declared India as a terrorist State.
Pakistani FM says, “The evidences presented by Pakistan provide a concrete proof of Indian financial and material sponsorship of multiple terrorist organisations, including UN-designated terrorist outfits, JUA, BLA, and TTP”.
He further states, “for too long India has gotten away with state-sponsored terrorism and cultivating seeds of hatred across the border. Today we presented to the world on Indian state’s insatiable appetite for terrorism, violence and instability”.
PM Khan after the presentation of the indisputable evidence against India said in his 14 November tweet, “We expect the international community to force India to end its terrorism and bring to justice those responsible for killing thousands of people in Pakistan”.
Let there be no doubt anywhere that we know on how to defend our country and will continue to do so with our combined national resolve”.
Aren’t these evidences enough to sensitize the incoming US President Biden and the UN plus the entire international community?
Isn’t now time to declare India a terrorist state? India must be taken to task. But who will bell the cat? That’s all.
@telegraphnepal
