NEW DELHI, Apr 16: Former US Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill has said India was facing serious geo-economic challenge from China and that was the reason the latter was using Pakistan to divert New Delhi’s attention from its objectives.
Mr Blackwill said India was a much more successful practitioner of geo-economics than the US but was still behind China. Geo-economic content of India’s foreign policy had acquired a very distinct shape under the Narendra Modi government, whereas during the previous governments, there was more rhetoric to the matter than real content, he said.
Underlining that India’s Look East was its most important geo-economic initiative, the former ambassador said that the Modi government was offering more favourable terms to its partners in the East while the previous path was less practical.
He, however, says India was going to face serious hurdles in its objectives as China’s policy towards Pakistan was to encourage the country to keep India occupied in the region. China would be formulating its policy towards Pakistan in a way that it put a brake on India’s rise to power.
He also said India’s geo-economics became very complex as the country while recognising it in contest with China was also seeking its investment. Mr Blackwill’s remark came in an interaction organised by the Carnegie India on his book ‘War by other Means’ here this week.
Coming to the US policies in the south Asian region, Mr Blackwill slammed the successive governments in his country over their Pakistan policy saying it was a ‘’dramatic example of the failure of the American foreign policy.
He expressed his strong opposition to the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, saying it would not serve any purpose. Quoting Albert Einstein that ‘’insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’’, he said the US had been committing the same mistakes regarding Pakistan again and again but was expecting different results.
The former Ambassador said that he was bewildered by the fact that every new Administration would get worried about Pakistan and send its Secretary of State to whom the Pakistan Administration lied systematically.
‘’And this goes on for about two years. In the third year, he tells his colleagues that Pakistan’s leaders have been lying to him. By the time they think how to deal with the situation, elections come in and a new dispensation is in place, and the same thing is repeated again,’’ he said. Mr Blackwill also said that economic relationship with Japan was very important for India.
Japan very much hopes that India will emerge as a balancer in the region. He also said that the US had so far seen India as the most difficult country when it came to matters of trade.
Mr Blackwill, however, expressed the hope that under the Modi Government, things would change. He also said that so far US policies had been focused on the security aspect of relations with India, but now it should focus on the geo-economic side of relations with India. He said the US had squandered its foreign policy, and the result was that global economic space was shifting against the US. (UNI)
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