Donald Trump warms to China and Nato, flipflops on Russia
US president reverses position on Nato, says western defence alliance is “no longer obsolete”
WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump appeared to have moved the farthest yet from his determination to work with Russia, when he suggested on Wednesday that bilateral relations were at an “all-time low” and that Moscow might have known about the chemical attack in Syria.
On Thursday, however, he returned with a re-reconsidered position on Russia to strike a positive note, tweeting, “Things will work out fine between the USA and Russia. At the right time everyone will come to their senses & there will be lasting peace!”
Will he hold to that position now, and for how long?
Trump seemed to have changed his position on Nato as well, saying the western defence alliance he had railed against as a candidate is “no longer obsolete”, and, gong against another campaign rant, he stated that China was not a currency manip- ulator.
And all of these consequential policy changes came in just one day, reversing major campaign promises and positions that had contributed to defining him as a candidate of change.
“Right now, we’re not getting along with Russia at all,” Trump said at a news conference with visiting Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg. “We may be at an all-time low in terms of a relationship with Russia.”
And he told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Wednesday China will not be named a currency manipulator in a report due out in a few weeks because, he added, it has not been manipulating its currency in recent months and, critically, designating it as one could jeopardize its help discipline North Korea, a client state.
Trump has also come around on Nato, which he had once said was obsolete and was sponging off the United States, with member countries not paying their agreed share. He had been severe about its lack focus on terrorism. WASHINGTON: Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday said the Donald Trump administration was a good opportunity for his country’s government to engage with and address the ongoing dissonance between the two erstwhile allies.
Trump “starts with a clean slate”, Musharraf said at a Washington think-tank. “We need to engage with the new government and project our point of view and our interests in a better way”.
He was speaking at the launch of a new study on how Pakistan and the US could fix a relationship weighed down by distrust and bitterness in recent years.
The launch, followed by daylong discussions kicked off by Musharraf’s keynote address, comes at a time of heightened interest in Pakistan in light of the US’ review of ties that are said to be in an advanced stage.
The Trump administration is under pressure from those who want the US to get tough with Pakistan, arguing it is the only option to force Islamabad to give up its use of, and support for, terrorism as a policy tool.
Former Pakistan ambassador Husain Haqqani and South Asia expert Lisa Curtis, who has since joined Trump’s national security team, argued in a paper earlier this year that the Trump administration should keep open the option of declaring Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism.
Musharraf’s presence at the launch at The Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University was a part of the effort launched by Pakistan and its supporters here to intervene before, as an expert said, “it was too late”.
Trump presented Pakistan with an opportunity, Musharraf argued. “He still needs to understand what really (are) the complexities of Pakistan-india relations … the complexities of Afghanistan, Taliban, al-qaeda etc.” “In that, we can certainly try to manage or try to project our point of view in a better way to him because he would be more open to a new understanding of the dynamics. I see it very positively,” he added.