In a video, Biden said that the four major democracies with a long history of cooperation know how to get things done and are up to the challenges, reports Asian Lite News.
President Joe Biden posted a video of the meeting of Quad heads of state here and said that the group is committed to partnership and inclusive Indo-Pacific.
Expressing his honour at hosting the Quad summit, Biden said that the members are committed to an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, inclusive.
The video featured Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian PM Scott Morrison and Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga along with the Biden during the recently held Quad Summit in Washington.
In the video, Biden said that the four major democracies with a long history of cooperation know how to get things done and are up to the challenges.
“It was an honor to host the first-ever in-person Quad Leaders’ Summit. We’re committed to our partnership and to an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, inclusive, and resilient,” Biden said in a tweet.
The first-ever in-person Quad Leaders’ Summit was held in Washington on September 24.
The head of the nations of four countries (India, US, Australia, Japan) participated in the meet.
The summit said that the countries will closely coordinate diplomatic, economic, and human-rights policies towards Afghanistan. And aim for an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, inclusive, and resilient.
The Quad leaders also denounced the use of terrorist proxies and emphasized the importance of denying any logistical, financial or military support to terrorist groups which could be used to launch or plan terror attacks, including cross-border attacks.
The meeting between the heads of state of the Quad nations held on September 24 at the White House marked a major shift in balance of power in the aforementioned regions. India, the US, Australia and Japan are now firmly placed on the world stage to take on Chinese economic and territorial hegemonic expansion as well as Pakistans attempts to export terrorist jihad in the region.
It also sent a strong message to the Taliban and was echoed during Indian Prime minister Narendra Modi address when he said that it was absolutely essential to ensure that Afghanistan’s territory is not used to spread terrorism and for terrorist activities. Modi also warned Pakistan that using terrorism as a “political tool” was an equally big threat for them as well. And quite rightly so. Ever since the Taliban took over Kabul, Pakistan military forces have come under periodic attacks by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). And the Afghan Taliban have refused to intervene as a mediator between the Pakistan government and the TTP.
On the other hand, Pakistani Prime minster Imran Khan who chickened out and decided not to attend the UNGA session and a recorded statement instead was exhibited. As always he his tone was hostile. He threatened the global community that if Taliban government was not recognised there would be consequences.
The Prime Minister boasted about reforesting Pakistan through a 10 billion tree plantation drive while illegally cutting down our forests in the Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). At the time when Pakistan illegally occupied PoJK on October 22, 1947, our forests covered 42 per cent of our landmass. Today that figure is reduced to 14 per cent. Our trees are being chopped and sold in the timber black markets in Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Lahore. It is estimated that Pakistan is robbing us of Rs 52 billion worth of forests annually causing recurring landslides and earthquakes in our region.
Khan informed the session that the gap between the rich and the poor was increasing at an alarming pace due to the plunder of the developing world by their own ruling elite. Well, he forgot to mention that he has given impunity to the military generals who constitute an integral part of Pakistan’s ruling elite and who have been involved in taking kick back and stealing money from development funds and Covid aid received in recent years.
How could a Pakistani Prime Minister’s address to the UNGA not involve India bashing? Khan proved to be no different. While calling RSS and BJP fascists, he praised terrorist late Syed Ali Shah Geelani and demanded that he be reburied in the graveyard of martyrs. He complained that Geelani’s body was snatched from his family and forcibly buried by the security forces. Well, how come Geelani’s corpse was wrapped up in the Pakistani flag?
It was an honor to host the first-ever in-person Quad Leaders’ Summit. We’re committed to our partnership and to an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, inclusive, and resilient. pic.twitter.com/W2HL58Jc0j
Taking advantage of ‘right to reply’, First Secretary of Indian mission in the UN, Sneha Dubey took Khan to task by reminding him that PoJK and PoGB were not only an integral part of Pakistan but demanded that Pakistan vacate the occupied territories immediately.
Claiming that Afghanistan might slip into chaos and become haven for terrorists Khan made demand on the global community to recognised the terrorist regime while Taliban continue to hunt down and in certain cases carrying executions on their doorstep afghans who had helped foreign forces or worked for foreign NGOs.
Afghanistan is a major front in the effort by the Sino-Wahhabi alliance to drain away credibility and morale within institutions such as the Quad, writes Prof. Madhav Nalapat
A kilo of action is worth more than a ton of words, and thus far, while words have continued to flow from those in Atlantic Alliance states, who consigned the people of Afghanistan into a medieval hell, efforts at putting such noble intentions into practice have been zero. The only parts of Afghanistan where women and non-radicals remain safe are in locations where the Taliban have failed to establish a foothold.
The greater the influence and control of different factions of the Taliban in a given place, the less the values and practices claimed to be championed by the more preachy among NATO member-states. This has not blocked the steady empowerment of the more toxic elements of the Taliban through “humanitarian assistance”, of course channelled through Pakistan. This has once again given GHQ Rawalpindi (and its PLA boosters) the ability to promote those loyal to them and obedient to their wishes, while depriving others of any “humanitarian” succour. Not that this fact is unknown to the countries doling out such “assistance”.
Those in charge know that money and materiel funnelled through Pakistan will end up with those elements who have made a living out of violence to their fellow human beings. What is paid is protection money, a bribe that it is hoped will stop radicals from putting at risk the lives of those citizens of NATO member-states who are still in Afghanistan. In reality, the degree of protection is less than strong, for the reason that more and more of the feisty younger elements in the Taliban are no longer responsive to the commands coming from the older leadership, especially those known to be following the dictates of the Sino-Pakistan alliance.
Pashtuns across both sides of the (defunct since 1992) Durand Line are a proud people, who have long chafed under the overbearing approach adopted by either Middle Eastern paymasters or commanders in the Pakistan army, which institution remains firmly in the control of those from the northern and western parts of Pakistan Punjab. This includes the territory from which those belonging to the Hindu and Sikh minorities have been expelled, where they have not been killed or made to change the faith they were born in.
OLD TALIBAN VS YOUNG TALIBAN
There is a widening gap within the collective known as the Taliban between the older leadership and the much young cadre that has been formed ever since the US and its coalition partners openly flaunted the degree of control they had over the governance institutions formed in Afghanistan since the 2001 collapse of the Taliban at the hands of the Northern Alliance assisted by US logistical (but not troop) support. NATO commanders believed that their own troops on the ground were the primary solution to the problem of keeping extremists away from Afghanistan, unwilling to admit (a) that the hyper-emphasis on force protection severely limited the tactical choices essential towards the defeat of enemy combatants, and that (b) ground and air attacks on the wrong targets (a consequence of relying on the Pakistan military for much of the intelligence input) boosted the ranks of those seeking to resist what they saw as just another foreign invasion of their country, and this after they had driven away the Soviet forces by 1989.
Frequent contact with the (overwhelmingly non-Pashtun) officers and men of the Pakistan army combined with the overbearing attitude of the latter to creating a mistrust (and often raw hatred) of Pakistan that is present not just in Afghan civil society in general but also in the ranks of the Taliban. This collective is split
into six groups, two of which function under the control of the Pakistan army, while another is dominated by those in financial servitude to the PLA, the top ranks of which have a decisive say within the Pakistan military as well.
It would be imprecise to even attempt to put numerical values on the strength of the six factions (including the three that are independent of the GHQ-PLA alliance). What can be said is that the ranks of the three factions controlled by the GHQ-PLA alliance are much smaller (and have a much higher average age) than the three factions that are resentful of the manner in which the Taliban are being sought to be controlled by GHQ Rawalpindi and the PLA through the Central Military Commission in Beijing, which has since 2017 come within the control of CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping, who is in many ways as organisationally powerful a leader as Chairman Mao was.
CHINESE YOUTHS ALARMED BY XI
Perhaps inconveniently for Xi, China has changed since the period when Mao was alive, and the Chairman’s efforts at becoming another anti-elitist leader is going against the sentiments of several young citizens of the PRC, who aspire to the “good life” represented by material success. In other words, the lifestyle that was placed as the centrepi
ece of party policy by Paramount Leader Deng Xiaoping from 1978 onwards, and which remained in place until 2012, when Xi Jinping took over as General Secretary of China’s ruling party.
Whether in the state owned or private sector, those in charge have felt the whiplash of the anti-elitist moves of Xi. These may be earning the party supremo cheers from the six hundred million who feel short-changed by the manner in which the PRC has developed since the 1980s, but is being viewed with alarm and resentment by the middle classes and much of the youth. While political activity (except in support of the CCP) was discouraged, a range of actions was freed of state oversight, thereby giving nearly four hundred million citizens of the PRC freedom of choice that had been absent during the period when Chairman Mao was running the country.
More than 85% of the prosperity of China is because of this segment of the overall population, and it remains an open question whether the attempted return to the Mao-era lifestyle will affect the PRC economy adversely or not. Orders such as restricting online gaming to three hours during weekends for the young, or the authorities going after popular movie stars and singers may cause tensions in Chinese society that for decades had been largely absent, despite the continuing monopoly of control by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). General Secretary Xi seeks to mould a nation in the image of Sparta, a collective of fighters who obey Victorian rules of morality.
From elementary school onwards, the effort is to groom a generation of citizens who will (a) be respectful and obedient to the dictates of the CCP leadership and its subordinates, and (b) embrace in word and deed the goal of Xi Jinping Thought, which is to enshrine China as the centre point of global geopolitical gravity. It is an ambitious task, and to further its progress, Xi has intensified cooperation not only with the Pakistan military but with Wahhabi dispensations and groups across different regions, of course excepting those within his own country. Xi sees in the Wahhabis an ideology and force that is hostile to the Atlantic Alliance, the importance of which in world affairs which Xi Jinping is seeking to reduce to a level such that it would not pose any challenge to the primacy of China (aided by its allies) across the Indo-Pacific and subsequently the Atlantic
TALIBAN VICTORY EMBOLDENS XI
What may be termed the “Creamy Layer” within the Taliban (mostly comprising of the ageing agents of the Sino-Pakistan alliance) is anxious for the opening of the sluice gates of financial assistance from NATO member-states. At present, such handouts are a trickle and are essentially ransom money, paid through the Pakistan army in order to try and ensure safe passage for the hundreds of NATO citizens still stranded within Afghanistan.
The problem is that the younger elements in the Taliban collective regard such individuals as human shields who ensure that there will not be any resumption of the bombing raids that the Taliban fear most from the NATO powers. Although US Secretary of State Antony Blinken may not have received information about the manner in which US citizens and Afghan employees of the former US mission are being prevented from leaving airports across Afghanistan, this is what has been taking place. The older “leadership” elements of the Taliban may have had some control over those under them during 1996-2001, but not anymore. In particular, they are regarded with contempt for their obsequious behaviour towards not just Pakistan but China.
It was not a surprise that GHQ Rawalpindi involved its forces in the battle over segments of the Panjshir mountain region. Billions of US dollars are at stake, given that elements (most technically retired) of the Pakistan army control the Af-Pak narcotics trade. The military is also looking at securing the role of middleman in ensuring that the PRC gains access to the mineral riches of Afghanistan. They seek to convert Afghanistan into another Balochistan, a colonised country from where riches get drained away, mostly into China. CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping looks upon the Pakistan army as a trustworthy conduit for such exploitation of the mineral wealth of Afghanistan, and has wagered all his cards on this bet.
What is helping boost the confidence of Xi is the fearful response of key NATO member-states, who are competing with each other in their attempt to curry favour with GHQ Rawalpindi and the Taliban, including through cash assistance. The sequence of events that has taken place in the Af-Pak region since the surrender to the Taliban by President Trump at Doha in 2020 has emboldened those close to General Secretary Xi, who have therefore intensified PLA-centric harassment of Taiwan and instituted even harsher measures to neutralise dissenting elements in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet and restive zones across China.
The ripple effects of the manner of President Biden’s scampering at speed from the Afghanistan theatre are becoming waves that, unless action countering this is not initiated, have the potential of becoming a tsunami that can severely damage security interests of the US, the EU and those countries active in efforts to ensure that the Indo-Pacific remains free and open to all rather than be monopolised by a single country.
China blames US for Afghan crisis
BEIJING PURSUES CREEPING ANNEXATION
Among the measures taken by Beijing to push forward its creeping annexation of land, air and sea space is the declaration that all vessels entering waters that are part of the global commons but which has been claimed by China need prior permission before such transit. Should this command be complied with, rather than ignored as ought to be the case, the countries making such a concession will be identified as soft targets for further active measures designed to lash them firmly to the political and economic interests of the CCP leadership.
In the 1990s, the present writer had pointed out that when the era of single male children monopolising the leadership of the CCP comes about, the risk of an aggressive, assertive stance by the PRC would rise substantially. This is what has happened under Xi Jinping’s watch, and thus far, the international fightback has been nowhere close to the degree needed to convince the leadership in Beijing of the dangers to themselves of the high-risk strategy that they have adopted since 2012 in their hunt for global primacy. Given the hyper-centralised mode of governance adopted by Xi Jinping, there appears to be a tendency in Beijing to underplay the fact that the governance system in the US (or in other major democracies) does not hinge on just the apex of the system in the manner that it now does in China.
While President Biden has miscalculated substantially in his decisions on Afghanistan, thereby doing severe harm to his own viability as an effective Commander-in-Chief, the presence of multiple nodes of authority in the US (such as industry, civil society, the media, opposition parties and others) results in far less damage being done to the overall societal structure in the US from such Presidential blunders than would be the case in the PRC, were Xi Jinping to make a policy error of similar magnitude. GHQ Rawalpindi has sought to disseminate the impression within its “iron” friends in Beijing that the Afghanistan fiasco has damaged the US sufficiently to give extra headway towards efforts by the Sino-Pakistan alliance to weaken US partners such as India and establish as strong a degree of control over Afghanistan as is the case in Balochistan.
The difficulty is that the mechanism of Afghan society is no longer tolerant of groups such as the Taliban, and resistance to that collective and to its outside supporters will grow in the months ahead. The swagger in Afghan cities of officers belonging to GHQ Rawalpindi has caused tensions within Afghan society unhappy at the extent of control that the Sino-Pakistan alliance has over several senior members of the Taliban. Across both sides of the Durand Line, the conviction is growing that if the US military could be sent packing from Afghanistan, would it be an impossible task to do likewise to the Pakistan army in the Pashtun territories across both sides of the Durand Line? Not just the global terrorist network but its antidote, the resistance to efforts by GHQ and its agents in the Taliban, is growing as well.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar needs to visit Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the light of recent events. Both powers understand (although not overtly) that the US-facilitated re-entry of the Taliban into Kabul presents an existential threat to their own security interests. A coordination of effort needs to be made to ensure that the Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara and other communities at risk in a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan are protected. The Resistance Movement concentrated within the Panjshir mountains needs help rather than remain ignored, as has been the case thus far.
Those in the US and elsewhere are wrong who believe that the Af-Pak situation is unrelated to the broader effort to keep the Indo-Pacific free and open. Afghanistan is a major front in the effort by the Sino-Wahhabi alliance to drain away credibility and morale within institutions such as the Quad. And yet the situation within that country and the Pashtun areas to the south of the Durand Line are fraught with fissures that have the potential to embroil the GHQ-PLA alliance in a situation similar to that faced by the USSR in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
What is required from India is leadership in cobbling together an alliance of countries and interests that seek to prevent extremist influence from spreading, and which are opposed to efforts at making large chunks of the territory of other countries or which form part of the global commons into the exclusive zone of primacy-seeking powers. The time for speaking out may not yet have arrived, but a “Wait and Watch” approach on the part of India has passed its expiry date. Intensive efforts are needed to prevent the waves of extremism linked to attempts at primacy from developing into a tsunami that can endanger the future of populations across continents, and as a consequence of the apparent abdication of responsible leadership by President Biden, the need is for Prime Minister Modi to pick up the baton. Silently but firmly.
According to a report, the G20 summit in Italy in October could provide an opportunity for the meet with a focus on Indo-Pacific…reports Asian Lite News
Trilateral-France, India and Australia-is all set to be elevated to leaders’ level as President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Scott Morrison are likely to meet on the sidelines of any major multilateral summit.
According to a report, the G20 summit in Italy in October could provide an opportunity for the meet.
The development comes almost a year after the group first met at the secretary level. In September 2020, the France, India and Australia trilateral was launched at foreign secretaries’ level with maritime security, environment and multilateralism as three joint priorities.
In May, the first foreign ministers meeting took place on the sidelines of the G7 summit in London. Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and their Australian counterpart Marise Payne met and discussed a number of issues.
The focus of the grouping has been largely on Indo-Pacific. Both France and Australia are part of the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) announced by India in 2019. In fact, Paris announced that it will join IPOI and take the lead of its ‘Maritime Resources’ pillar during the French foreign minister’s visit to New Delhi in April 2020.
The mandate of the trilateral is being expanded. Ahead of the G20 FMs meeting in Italy, the trilateral had coordinated amongst themselves on a joint strategy at the forum.
Earlier, this year also saw the grouping having met at the senior officials’ level. The Indian side was led by Joint Secretary (Europe West) in MEA, Sandeep Chakravorty; French by Bertrand Lortholary, Director (Asia and Oceania), and the Australian side was led by Gary Cowan, First Assistant Secretary (North and South Asia Division). (India News Network)
Though the US has been selling weapons to Taiwan–the island nation that lies just 180 kms off China’s eastern coast, this is the first arms’ sales to Taiwan under the Joe Biden administration, reports Rahul Kumar
With deteriorating security conditions in the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific region, the US has approved a US $750 million deal for self-propelled howitzers for Taiwan. The US has also given nod to weapons’ sales worth $134 million to Japan.
Weapon sales to Taiwan and Japan
Quoting from the Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) press release, Taiwan News said: “the US State Department approved the potential sale of 40 M109A6 Paladins, 20 M992A2 Field Artillery Ammunition Support Vehicles, one Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System, five M88A2 Hercules vehicles, five M2.50 caliber machine guns, and 1,698 multi-option, precision guidance kits”.
Separately, the US has also approved two missiles-related arms sales to Japan worth $195 million, according to the DSCA. A press release by the DSCA said: “The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Japan of AEGIS Class Destroyer Support and related equipment for an estimated cost of $134 million”.
Increasing global tensions
The arms procurements by both Taiwan and Japan are pointers to the mounting tensions in the region due to China’s overbearing behaviour. It has threatened Taiwan with a military invasion following its policy of considering the island a break-away part of its territory.
China has also hinted that it could take over the Japan-held Senkaku islands over which it has a running dispute with Japan. Tokyo has calculated that if Beijing attacks Taiwan, it is likely to mount an offensive on the Senkaku islands.
Relations between China and the US also are in free fall over numerous issues, notable ones being the origins of the coronavirus, trade disputes, aggressive moves against countries in the South China Sea and human rights violations in ethnically diverse provinces.
Welcoming the American decision to approve the sale of the weapons, the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a tweet: “We welcome @StateDept’s approval of a proposed USD 750M arms sale to Taiwan. The decision demonstrates the US government’s commitment to the #TaiwanRelationsAct & #SixAssurances. It also allows the country to maintain a rock-solid self-defence, & regional peace & stability”.
Japan to deploy missiles close to Taiwan to defend it
In another significant development, Japan has decided to move surface-to-air and surface-to-ship missiles close to Taiwan to protect it from a possible Chinese attack.
Japan has chosen the island of Ishigaki, just 300 kms north-east of Taiwan, to place the missiles as a deterrent to China. Along with the missiles, Tokyo will also put nearly 500-600 Japan Self-Defence Forces. One unit of soldiers will man the missiles while another will handle a military attack.
The deployment is slated for 2022. With this, Japan will have placed the missiles on four islands in the Nansei island chain that stretches from Japan to Taiwan and further till Borneo. The missiles have been placed to guard the Senkaku islands as much as to protect Taiwan.
Japan hopes to deter the Chinese military vessels which often violate the maritime borders of both Japan and Taiwan. China’s aircraft carrier, Liaoning too also has been patrolling the waters near the Japanese islands.
What is different about these sales
Though the US has been selling weapons to Taiwan–the island nation that lies just 180 kms off China’s eastern coast, this is the first arms’ sales to Taiwan under the Joe Biden administration. The US has also taken upon itself the task to provide security to Taiwan by undertaking freedom of navigation passage exercises through the Taiwan strait as well as in the vital South China Sea, angering the Chinese for conducting a task that China itself does very often.
Beijing has always been extra-critical of any move to accord Taiwan an independent status by any country. It has also frowned upon any American military, diplomatic or official effort to improve relations with Taiwan. In fact, Beijing has often warned Washington of retaliation if the latter tries to intervene militarily on Taiwan’s behalf when American officials visit the island nation.
Indo-Pacific becoming a high-intensity military zone
Not just Taiwan and Japan, even other countries in the region are feeling the Chinese heat. The Philippines, Australia, Vietnam are all honing their defences against Chinese aggression.
European countries including France and Germany have sent warships while the UK’s foremost piece of weaponry, aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth is in the region to conduct exercises.
Other nations like Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada and the UK have been holding military exercises with American forces to thwart any possible attacks on islands in the region.
(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)
It will take place this year as a fully online event on October 28-29, 2021, with a schedule that ensures participants from across the Indo-Pacific can all participate…reports Asian Lite News
The fourth annual Indo-Pacific Business Forum (IPBF) will be held virtually on October 28-29, 2021, informed the United States Department of State on Thursday.
The United States, in partnership with the Government of India, the US Chamber of Commerce, the Confederation of Indian Industry, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and the US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC), is sponsoring the fourth annual Indo-Pacific Business Forum (IPBF), a statement from the Department of State said.
It will take place this year as a fully online event on October 28-29, 2021, with a schedule that ensures participants from across the Indo-Pacific can all participate, it added.
The IPBF advances a vision for an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, and inclusive. Government and business leaders from the United States, India, and across the Indo-Pacific region will exchange ideas through interactive discussions organised around three broad themes: Economic Recovery and Resilience; Climate Action; and Digital Innovation.
Attendees will also be able to explore regional government and business partnerships and commercial opportunities.
The IPBF will showcase high-impact private sector investment and government efforts to support market competition, job growth, and high-standard development for greater prosperity and economic inclusion in the Indo-Pacific.
The event will be conducted via a secure online conferencing platform, the statement added. (ANI)
When US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
The US supports India’s emergence as a leading global power and vital partner in efforts to ensure regional peace…reports Asian Lite News
The US and India are also closely coordinating on regional security issues, such as Afghanistan.
The US supports India’s emergence as a leading global power and vital partner in efforts to ensure that the Indo-Pacific is a region of peace, stability, and growing prosperity and economic inclusion.
As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in New Delhi Wednesday, deepening the strategic partnership between the US and India will be a key agenda item.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken visit to India will reaffirm the US’s commitment to strengthening our partnership and underscore cooperation on our shared priorities.
The US and India have a strong strategic partnership founded on shared values and a commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region. The US supports India’s emergence as a leading global power and vital partner in efforts to ensure that the Indo-Pacific is a region of peace, stability, and growing prosperity and economic inclusion
Afghanistan
The US and India cooperate on a wide range of diplomatic, economic and security issues, including defence, non-proliferation, regional cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, shared democratic values, counterterrorism, climate change, health, energy, trade and investment, peacekeeping, the environment, education, science and technology, agriculture, space, and oceans.
An increase in exchanges under the agreement has allowed for the development of new and innovative programs, and India now has the largest Fulbright Scholar (faculty) program in the world. In FY 2019, this funding provided opportunities for 61 US scholars, 66 Indian scholars, 80 U.S. students, including 29 English Teaching Assistants, and 55 Indian students, including 13 Foreign Language Teaching Assistants.
The US and India are working to expand cooperation in international organizations. The US welcomed India joining the UN Security Council in January 2021 for a two-year term.
In October 2020, India hosted the third 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue, and the US looks forward to the next 2+2 later this year.
India is a leading global power and a key U.S. partner in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. At the inaugural Quad Leader’ Summit in March, President Biden and Prime Minister Modi joined their Japanese and Australian counterparts in pledging to respond to the economic and health impacts of Covid-19, combat the climate crisis, and address shared challenges, including in cyber-space, critical technologies, counterterrorism, quality infrastructure investment, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and maritime security.
President Joe Biden (then vice president) with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The State Department said the US-India defence cooperation is reaching new heights, including through information sharing, liaison officers, increasingly complex exercises like Malabar, and defence enabling agreements, such as the secure communications agreement COMCASA. As of 2020, the US has authorized over $20 billion in defence sales to India.
Through the US-India Defence Technology and Trade Initiative, the US and India work together on co-production and co-development of defence equipment.
The United States has contributed more than $200 million for India’s Covid-19 relief and response efforts since the pandemic began, including more than $50 million in emergency supplies and training for more than 2,18,000 frontline health workers on infection prevention and control, benefitting more than 43 million Indians.
India-US. (File Photo: IANS)
The US and India are partnering to strengthen the global response to Covid-19, on issues ranging from addressing infectious disease outbreaks to strengthening health systems to securing global supply chains.
US pharmaceutical companies have coordinated with Indian companies since the beginning of the pandemic. This cooperation includes voluntary licensing and technology transfer agreements to increase global manufacturing capacity for Covid-19 vaccines, therapies, and conducting clinical trials.
Under the new Agenda 2030 Partnership, the US and India look forward to launching the new Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue, led by Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, and relaunching the Strategic Clean Energy Partnership, led by Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, later this year.
The US looks forward to further cooperation with India on tackling the climate crisis and raising global ambition ahead of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, UK, in November.
Beijing is hardly content to limit its military basing pursuits to the South Pacific…reports Asian Lite News
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is making serious headway securing new military bases in Cambodia, Tanzania, the United Arab Emirates, including Kiribati – one located around 1,800 miles from sensitive US military installations in Hawaii in the Indo-Pacific area.
Craig Singleton, writing in Foreign Policy said that Tanzania, Cambodia, and the UAE are on China’s wish list–and now Kiribati, within striking distance of Hawaii, projecting its power beyond the tense Taiwan Strait.
Beijing is hardly content to limit its military basing pursuits to the South Pacific. Whether or not Washington can derail Beijing’s plans is anyone’s guess, wrote Singleton.
Although the U.S. Defense Department’s China Task Force recently characterized Beijing as Washington’s “number one pacing challenge,” the Pentagon’s 2022 budget continues a troubling trend of treating the PLA as a long-term, “over-the-horizon” threat.
Case in point: The Pentagon’s wish list for its new Pacific Deterrence Initiative doubles down on costly, long-term, platform-centric investments at the expense of urgently pressing priorities, such as security assistance funding to strengthen vital alliances and partnerships.
Also missing from the initiative are funds to reassess the military’s regional posture on account of the PLA’s efforts to secure an expanded foothold in the Pacific, reported Foreign Policy.
The current push for a Chinese base in Kiribati is eerily reminiscent of Beijing’s efforts to secure its first (and for now only) overseas military base in Djibouti in 2017.
China has leveraged a combination of deft diplomacy, elite capture, and strategically timed investments to win over the host nation government, wrote Singleton.
China’s ambitions in Cambodia are much closer to fruition. Since at least 2020, the US government has acknowledged China’s interest in establishing a military outpost at Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand.
Satellite imagery has revealed rapid construction at Ream Naval Base, including the demolition of several US-funded buildings, prior to the June Phnom Penh visit by US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.
Thereafter, the U.S. defense attache in Cambodia was denied full access to Ream Naval Base during a Cambodian government-sponsored trip aimed at dispelling concerns about Chinese activities at the base.
All told, Cambodia’s lack of transparency has reinforced suspicions that the upgrades at Ream are part of a clandestine Chinese buildup that would allow Beijing to project power into the Indian Ocean, reported Foreign Policy.
Besides Cambodia, Washington has also long viewed the UAE as one of Beijing’s most desired basing locations. A base in the Emirates would significantly expand the PLA’s maritime footprint in and around crucial maritime chokepoints, including the Strait of Hormuz and the southern entrance to the Red Sea.
A UAE base could also be part of a chain of other potential Chinese military locations on the Indian Ocean, including in Pakistan and Myanmar.
Although the UAE has traditionally been more closely aligned with the United States than China, Abu Dhabi has been keen to deepen its ties with Beijing as a hedge against Washington’s diplomatic overtures to Tehran, wrote Singleton.
More recently, US spy agencies monitored two PLA planes traveling to the UAE, where they unloaded unspecified cargo, reported Foreign Policy.
Recognising that many of China’s basing efforts occur under the guise of commercial development–and in an attempt to expose plans to militarize ports–the US Defense Department should also empower targeted countries to call China’s bluff, advised Singleton.
This could include funding independent audits and legal reviews of potential Chinese port agreements as well as working with host governments to insert specific clauses into contracts that prohibit the docking, landing, or pre-positioning of any PLA assets at these locations. More often than not, the Chinese will balk, thereby revealing their true intentions.
Concerned citizens of potential host countries need to look no further than Djibouti, where China now asserts complete territorial sovereignty over land once owned by Djiboutian tribes, reported Foreign Policy. (ANI)
Noting that the Covid-19 had brought out many inadequacies in the global health system and the resulting debates are taking place elsewhere, the EAM said…reports Asian Lite News.
Even as the world deals with a global pandemic, the collaboration among the governments, businesses, medical and scientist professionals of the Indo-Pacific region will lead to a post-pandemic economic recovery, said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday.
Speaking at the inaugural session of the 1st edition of the Indo-Pacific Business Summit, Jaishankar said, “Indo-Pacific reflects the reality of globalization, the emergence of multi-polarity and the benefits of rebalancing. It means the overcoming of the Cold War and a rejection of bipolarity and dominance. Most of all, it is an expression of our collective interest in promoting global prosperity and securing the global commons. The Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative advanced by India clearly validates this assertion.”
Noting that the Covid-19 had brought out many inadequacies in the global health system and the resulting debates are taking place elsewhere, the EAM said, “Whether it is the next wave, the next pandemic or indeed something quite different, part of the answer lies in greater international collaboration. By that I mean the working together not just of Governments, but of businesses and the medical and scientific professions.”
Further the minister noted that the compulsions of the Covid era have all made us much more digital. “This may be literal in terms of contact tracing and vaccination registration; facilitative in terms of home delivery and virtual calls; or just a lifestyle, in case of Work From Home. New opportunities and efficiencies have been discovered in that process. And accordingly, the risks too have magnified,” he said.
Pointing out that high-speed internet, cyber security, enhanced digital literacy, deeper technical cooperation, regional e-commerce, and efficient e-governance will have a more salient place in the conversations in the coming days, he said, “The strengthening of digital connectivity both within and between the countries of the Indo-Pacific is an essential condition for our economic prosperity and development. Like minded countries must work together for data driven digital development partnerships. The templates of that could draw on the framework that governs existing development partnerships.”
Besides, Jaishankar said that the Covid pandemic may have slowed the building of the global economy and the promotion of economic recovery; it has obviously not stopped it. This is, therefore, an occasion to reflect, perhaps introspect on how to build greener. Many of us have national programmes to that end and collaborating more closely is obviously to our mutual benefit, he said.
“Our collective efforts can certainly re-define the quality of infrastructure and indeed the nature of urbanization. They can make agriculture more sustainable and harness the Blue Economy more seriously. Physical and digital connectivity remain important for supporting shorter, efficient and diversified supply-chains, risk mitigation, enhanced trade facilitation, and reduction in the costs of intra-regional trade,” Jaishankar added.
In this context, the EAM shared how India is responding to the challenges of recovery and re-building. “We have reformed even as we have rebuilt. On health, our programme of wider health coverage has been accelerated by the rapid expansion last year of the health infrastructure. Currently, mass vaccination and addressing the ongoing wave are the focus. But the goal is to transform the sector entirely by augmenting human resources, equipment and capacities,” he said.
On the digital side, the EAM said that the expansion of connectivity, a skills initiative and a start-up culture are helping to change the game. On infrastructure, a range of initiatives and reforms that are unfolding even as we speak will surely spur greater investment.
Besides, on agriculture, empowering farmers and enabling freer trade has been matched by a stronger commitment to post-harvest infrastructure. And across 13 key sectors, performance-linked initiatives promise to upscale manufacturing. Bold measures have just recently been taken to promote tourism, he said.
Addressed the inaugural session of the First Edition of the Indo-Pacific Business Summit.
Thank the @FollowCII leadership and Ministers from Australia, Mauritius, Maldives, France, US & Vietnam for their participation. pic.twitter.com/cv1HF7Nxae
“And all of this is encapsulated by a framework that envisages an India of deeper strengths, greater capacities and more responsibility. And not least, in making it much easier to do business,” the minister added.
In his concluding remarks, the minister said, “International cooperation, especially among businesses, will be very much a key to the better world that we all seek. The Indo-Pacific – a region in which we are so deeply invested historically – will be an arena of particular activity and energy.” (India News Network)
Pakistani soldiers march past during the military parade to mark Pakistan's National Day in Islamabad, (Xinhua_Ahmad Kamal)(rh)
The need is to sign an Indo-Pacific charter that enshrines the principles that the signatories commit to defending, writes Prof. Madhav Nalapat
Perhaps shortly after he steps down from his office of General Secretary of the most powerful political party in the world, the Chinese Communist Party, but more likely years before, Xi Jinping will realize that the gamble he has taken by placing on steroids the military-to-military cooperation between the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) and GHQ Rawalpindi will rank as an error comparable to the 1979 decision of Communist Party of the Soviet Union General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev to invade and occupy Afghanistan by force.
With every passing year, the PRC will get further sucked into the quicksand that the military is making of Pakistan. It will willy-nilly be an accessory to the various methods employed by the Pakistan army against its foes. As a consequence, friends will turn into foes. The bills for the Chinese people will mount, as will the human toll of seeking to prevent the meltdown of a country through boosting the capabilities of the very institution that is responsible for that situation, the higher command of the Pakistan army.
It had been Brezhnev who had announced that the Soviet Union “was prepared to risk World War 3 rather than surrender control of any of its East European satellites”. Neither was Afghanistan ever a Soviet satellite, nor was the Carter administration (with the Russia-centric Zbigniew Brzeziński as its National Security Advisor) going to forgo the opportunity of ensuring that Soviet armies get so mired down in Afghanistan that the CPSU will forget all about waging World War 3 and be forced to concentrate on fighting the Afghan resistance to their illegal occupation. Presidents Carter and later Reagan made the mistake of ignoring moderate Pashtuns and outsourcing the Afghan war to Pakistan, who promptly used only religious extremists to carry out a campaign of attrition that bled Soviet forces incessantly.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Beijing. (Xinhua_Yan Yan)
This US policy put the armed segment of Wahhabism on steroids, an error that the world is still paying a high price for. Sadly, other countries (including in the GCC, who ought to have known better) were prodded by Washington into backing the extremists let loose by the Pakistan army, brushing aside the overwhelming majority of Pashtuns, who are moderate. China, which for several decades has been a force multiplier for the Pakistan military, assisted successive US administrations in the task of crippling the Soviet Union, including in Afghanistan. For such steadfast support to Washington against Moscow, the PRC was richly rewarded by the US and its allies (including Japan and Taiwan) in the form of financial resources, intelligence and advanced technology.
All of this was at the same time being denied to India, except by Japan, which was helpful even after Taiwan under Lee Teng Hui cold-shouldered an informal request for financial accommodation from the Government of India. Despite this snub, Prime Minister Narasimha Rao established “non-formal” diplomatic ties with Taiwan in common with much of the rest of the world, besides correctly recognizing Israel’s support to India by upgrading diplomatic relations to the level of embassies in the respective capitals. India was and still is the world’s most populous democracy, but that cut no ice with President Bill Clinton or his contemporary leaders in the EU, US and Taiwan, who denied even a little of the same favours to India as was thrown away lavishly towards China.
People’s Liberation Army
Much has been said about the evolving Indo-Pacific confluence of countries that oppose the efforts of an authoritarian power under a hyper-confident leader seeking to dominate the Indo-Pacific. Those expected to know better claimed in public that the Quad needed to remain without a military component. Mahatma Gandhi was a saint who saw only good even in the worst of people. During the 1940 and 1941 effort by Adolf Hitler to conquer Britain, his advice to the British was to open the doors of their homes to the Germans, so that soul-force could transform hatred and cruelty into compassion and love.
From the time the Mahatma publicly made this recommendation to the British people, M.A. Jinnah began gaining traction in Whitehall for his formula of “divide before quitting”. The results of that tragedy reverberate across the subcontinent and beyond to this day. This makes more aware of the wisdom of the pacifist Abraham Lincoln conducting a bloody civil war with secessionist (slaveholding) states from 1861 to 1865 rather than accept a divided United States.
Another example of a leadership style, albeit with a very different ethical quotient, was the manner in which Mao Zedong doubled the land area of China through the PLA during the 1940s and 1950s without any opposition from either British India or Free India. Now Xi Jinping seeks to do a Mao, again with the assistance of the PLA and its auxiliaries such as GHQ Rawalpindi. This time around, the lessons of the 1940s and the 1950s (not to mention that of the consistency of the ideological trajectory of the CCP since the founding of the PRC in 1949) seem to have been learnt at least by a few countries. Prime Minister Suga and President Biden, where the challenge of dealing with an expansionist authoritarian state are concerned, seem to have read the tea leaves correctly.
Pak Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chinese President Xi Jinping
Which is why Prime Minister Modi, President Biden, Prime Minister Morrison and Prime Minister Suga need to sign an Indo-Pacific charter that enshrines the principles that the signatories need to commit to defending. Marx said that history repeats a tragedy the next time around as farce. This was in his book on Louis Bonaparte. The Roosevelt-Churchill Atlantic Charter was not a tragedy but a ray of hope showing a future better than that promised by the damp, dark shadow of Hitler.
The Biden-Johnson Atlantic Charter Mark II was a farce that other members of the G7 apparently saw through. If such parodies of statecraft are the efforts of advisors of the US President and the UK Prime Minister, both are soon going to be in trouble where their countries are concerned. The manner in which the Sino-Wahhabi alliance (in which the Sino-Pakistan alliance is a prime mover) is seeking to widen societal faultlines in India and the US in particular through infiltration into social media space indicates the methodical manner in which a superpower whose leadership has been transparent about seeking dominance in the Eurasian landmass and in the Indo-Pacific is aiming its arrows at not just India but the US and indeed the system of democracy.
If both the societies of the two biggest democracies in the world develop faultlines that are ignored much as the collapsed condominium in Florida was, it would be easier, in PRC’s reckoning, to ensure that the system of governance they have preserved for seven decades prevails in a manner that the Soviet system failed to do in 1992. The battle is existential, and unless the Indo-Pacific partners in ensuring free and open passage together with ASEAN and the countries on both sides of the Atlantic understand this reality, the outcome of what may most appropriately (if still not accepted widely) be termed Cold War 2.0 needs to move in a direction that only clarity of purpose and effectiveness in response can assure. The Himalayan massif and the South and East China Seas are part of the same front, and need a unified response, no matter where the challenge next appears, whether this be kinetic or otherwise.
This concern was conveyed during India and ARF Senior Officials’ meet, reports Asian Lite News
Expressing its concern over growing traditional and non-traditional threats to the maritime security environment, India on Tuesday called for the need to work together based on convergences between the ASEAN Outlook for the Indo-Pacific and India’s Indo–Pacific Oceans’ Initiative and Indo-Pacific policies announced by several ARF countries.
Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs, Riva Ganguly Das conveyed such concern while participating in the ASEAN Regional Forum Senior Officials’ Meeting in a virtual format. The meeting was attended by representatives from the 27 ASEAN Regional Forum countries.
According to the MEA, Secretary East also shared India’s perspectives on addressing the threat posed by terrorism and the challenges of cyber security.
The meeting reviewed ARF activities and exchanges over the past year and deliberated on the future plans and efforts under the ARF.
Senior Officials exchanged views on the regional and international issues including the COVID-19 pandemic, terrorism, cyber security, developments in the South China Sea, Myanmar and Korean Peninsula.
In June 2021, India co-chaired an ARF workshop on ‘United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea’ and will co-chair an Inter-Sessional Meeting on Maritime Security, workshops on “Law of the Sea and Fisheries”, and “International Ship and Port facility Security Code” in the upcoming year. (INN)
