US to help India balance China’s power under Donald Trump’s new Asia strategy, ex-CIA official reveals
The new policy, which would seek to push India deeper into East Asia and the Pacific region, is expected to be unveiled during the US president’s Asian visit
When US President Donald Trump visits Asia next month, the US will unveil a new policy for the region that includes a goal to arm and push India deeper into East Asia and the Pacific region to act as a balancing power against China, a former CIA staff member has told the South China Morning Post.
As part of the move, which Beijing could perceive as a strategy to contain it, the US will offer advanced American fighter planes to India and an emerging Washington-Delhi strategic partnership, Dennis Wilder, a former chief of China studies in the CIA and senior East Asia director at the National Security Council, said in an interview.
The Trump administration wants to pull India, a South Asian country, more closely into East Asia and the Pacific, Wilder said, adding that the concept of “a free and open Indo-Pacific region” would be the new catchphrase for US policy in Asia.
“This idea has been kicking around between the US, Japan, Australia and India for a while,” said Wilder, now a professor of Asian studies at Georgetown University in Washington.
The plan was first disclosed in late September when the White House announced Trump’s Asian visit, saying the president would “discuss the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific region to America’s prosperity and security”.
