China, Russia are ‘competitors’ in US national security strategy
SHIFTING FOCUS Describing them as revisionist powers reflects US’ wariness despite Trump’s attempts to build ties
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump will unveil his administration’s national security strategy on Monday, which will identify China and Russia as “revisionist powers” and competitors that threaten the US.
The strategy document will also reassure allies and partners around the world that his “America First” focus is not at their exclusion, it’s not “American Alone”.
The strategy will describe China and Russia as “revisionist powers” that seek to upend the status quo and the international order, an administration official told reporters previewing Trump’s speech. They are among three groups the Trump administration will describe as threats.
The other two groups are “rogue regimes” such as North Korea and Iran, and “transnational terrorist organisations”, which export violence in support of their “wicked” ideology.
Reports based on excerpts of the document said China and Russia “are determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries, and to control information and data to repress their societies and expand their influence.”
“These competitions require the US to rethink the policies of the past two decades — policies based on the assumption that engagement with rivals and their inclusion in international institutions and global commerce would turn them into benign actors and trustworthy partners,” the document will say, reports said.
Of interest to New Delhi, a senior administration official said the strategy will reiterate what Trump said in his speech to APEC, as also secretary of state Rex Tillerson’s remarks at a think tank just days before leaving for India: “China, while rising alongside India, has done so less responsibly, at times undermining international, rules-based order – even as countries like India operate within a framework that protects other nations’ sovereignty”.
“China’s provocative actions in the South China Sea directly challenge the international law and norms that the United States and India both stand for.”
Also of interest to New Delhi, the strategy will stress reforms of international bodies such as the United Nations and Nato. But the reforms for the UN will be focussed more on administrative issues such as cutting expenses and flab, not the sort of consequential changes India and other countries have sought: the expansion of the UN Security Council to reflect changing global reality.
The strategy will be based on four broad pillars — “America’s vital interests”, as an official described them.
First, protecting homeland, strengthening the border, fixing immigration and dealing with the threat of terrorism, including internal radicalisation
Second, promoting American prosperity through trade deals.
Third, preserving peace through strength, entailing sharpening military edge and readiness, increased lethality.
And fourth, advancing American influence around the world.