U.S. tilt to India, away from Pakistan, long overdue
B oth the Bush and Obama administrations supported diplomatic efforts to establish closer economic and military ties with India. This week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting Washington for an introductory meeting with President Trump. The time is right for a bipartisan “tilt” of U.S. policies towards India, and a simultaneous disengagement from our unproductive relationship with Pakistan.
Encouraging India’s peaceful rise
India’s economy is growing faster today than any other major country in the world and it is likely to soon become the third largest. The United States should welcome India’s emergence as an international power. We need Asia’s leading nations such as Japan, India, South Korea and Australia to collaborate with us on efforts to protect free navigation and energy development in international waters, promote free trade among the region’s 2.5 billion consumers, and contain any aggressive moves by China or North Korea.
India and the U.S. are gravely concerned about the international community’s failure to curtail state-sponsored terrorism. Terrorist networks based in Pakistan have carried out more than a dozen attacks in India since 9/11, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks. During the Cold War, India’s status as a nonaligned nation allowed it to play a key role in mediating conflicts. A strong Indian voice coupled with increased military collaboration with the U.S. may dissuade some countries from supporting terrorists.
There are important cultural and economic reasons why the United States and India should emphasize their common values and look past prior disagreements. The two countries have vibrant democracies, commitments to religious freedom, the English language, a colonial history, and affinity for the prosperous overseas Indian community that contributes to the economies of both nations. In the coming decades, India may have more in common with the stable economies and governments of the G-7 nations than with the other “BRICS” nations of Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa
Any fresh start with India should serve India’s interests. India’s strategic challenge is to avoid future intimidation from the two aligned nations with whom it has already fought five wars in the 20th century, Pakistan and China. India remains vulnerable to joint military pressure from them along its border on the Himalayas as well as from China’s stated plans to divert critical water resources. China supplies Pakistan with military hardware and the two countries frequently oppose Indian diplomatic initiatives. Even without a formal defense alliance, the U.S. should consider selling India key weapons systems like Patriot missiles and fast attack submarines.
Disappointments with Pakistan
Decades ago, Pakistan’s leaders helped the United States restore diplomatic relations with China, and later aided rebel forces fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Since that time, however, Pakistan has pursued policies that undermine important interests of the United States and conflict with our fundamental values.
After Pakistan developed nuclear weapons in the 1980s, the government shared its nuclear technology with other nations. Pakistan’s reckless proliferation contributed to many of today’s dangers including a nuclear-armed North Korea threatening East Asia, and a nuclear capable Iran dominating the Middle East.
After al-Qaida and the Taliban collaborated on the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan played both sides. Although Pakistan helped capture a terrorist from time to time, its leaders loudly protested U.S. drone strikes and allowed Bin Laden to rest comfortably within its borders until Navy SEALs killed him in 2011. Even after the Pakistani Taliban attacked a nuclear facility, assassinated government leaders and killed hundreds of the children of Pakistani military leaders at a school in 2014, the government negotiated truces that left the militants in control of border sanctuaries from which they can attack American troops in Afghanistan.
Despite receiving over $32 billion of U.S. foreign aid, Pakistan has made a strategic decision that continued turmoil in Afghanistan and in the Kashmir region bordering India is more important than stopping terrorism.
For decades, people hoped that Pakistan would evolve into a civil society with constitutional freedoms. Instead, it has devolved into a failed state that threatens the stability of the region. Rather than continuing to tolerate Pakistan’s “America last” foreign policy, both parties in Congress should suspend all military assistance to Pakistan and consider phasing out economic assistance over a four-year monitoring period.
Both Modi and Trump are political outsiders with economic expertise who were lightly regarded by the political establishment. There may be a unique window of opportunity now for these two unconventional leaders to transcend the turbulent history of their nations’ past relations and forge a new partnership based on shared values and dreams, mutual security goals, and economic incentives.