US urges India to partner for a secure Indo-Pacific region
Tillerson says a provocative China, unlike India, undermines international order
WASHINGTON: US secretary of state Rex Tillerson on Wednesday made a strong pitch for greater cooperation with India to tackle global threats and challenges such as ensuring a “free and open” Indo-Pacific region in the face of a predatory China.
He stressed that while the United States wants to work with India and any other nation to counter terrorism, it still sees Pakistan as a valuable partner and will work with Islamabad and New Delhi to reduce tensions along the country’s eastern border with India and the western border with Afghanistan.
Tillerson did not explain what steps, if any, were being considered by the US for easing tensions along the India-Pakistan border, the mere prospect of which might cause concern in New Delhi, which has historically opposed any third-country or party intervention.
The secretary, who will travel to India next week as part of a three-nation tour that will also take him to Pakistan and Afghanistan, offered the most blunt assessment yet by an US official of China’s rise in the context of relations with India and the region, speaking more approvingly of India.
“China, while rising alongside India, has done so less responsibly, at times undermining the international, rules-based order — even as countries like India operate within a framework that protects other nations’ sovereignty,” Tillerson said in an address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
“China’s provocative actions in the South China Sea directly challenge the international law and norms that the US and India both stand for.”
Tillerson was scathing in his criticism of China’s aggression: “The US seeks constructive relations with China. But we won’t shrink from China’s challenges to the rules-based order, or where China subverts the sovereignty of neighbouring countries, and disadvantages the US and our friends.”
He added, “India needs a reliable partner on the world stage. I want to make clear: with our shared values and vision for global stability, peace and prosperity, the US is that partner.”
He went on to offer an elaborate and lofty framework for ties with India.