As US president, Clinton to stay committed to ties with South Asia

WASHINGTON: In the first remarks on what India and South Asia could expect from a Hillary Clinton administration, one of her senior aides indicated continuity on Tuesday.

“There is already a real growth in our relationships, with key South Asian countries over the course of the last seven years,” Daniel Feldman, a foreign policy adviser to Democratic nominee Clinton, told reporters in response to a question. “There’s enormous continued opportunity to expand and strengthen those relationships, and I’m sure that she will continue to take advantage of that,” he said.

Feldman served in United States state department’s office of the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan and has dealt with South Asia at length over a long career, working with Clinton when she was secretary of state and her successor John Kerry.

Reproduced here are long stretches from his comments as these are the first policy remarks about a possible Clinton administration’s policy on South Asia.

“Look to her commitments to South Asia when she was secretary, her frequent travel there – and I accompanied her to India, to Pakistan, to Afghanistan, all numerous times,” Feldman said. “Her commitment to continue to try to knit together this – one of the least connected regions of the world, between South and Central Asia.”