The U.S. decision to expand relations with India almost certainly will upset India’s rival, Pakistan, where Tillerson also will stop next week, said a senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Pakistan was the main U.S. ally in South Asia for decades, but U.S. officials are frustrated with what they charge has been Pakistan’s failure to cut support for the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, where the administration wants India to play a bigger role in economic development.
As part of a South Asia strategy unveiled by Trump in August, Tillerson is expected to press Islamabad, which denies aiding the Taliban, to take stronger steps against extremists and allied groups and intensify efforts to pressure them to agree to peace talks with Kabul.
“We expect Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorist groups based there that threaten its own people and the broader region,” Tillerson said.
Trump has threatened further cuts in U.S. aid to Pakistan if it fails to cooperate.
China, a strategic rival to the United States and India, is also vital to Trump’s efforts to roll back North Korea’s efforts to create nuclear-armed missiles capable of reaching the United States, an issue expected to top the agenda in Trump’s Nov. 8-10 Beijing visit.
A senior State Department official defended the timing of the speech, saying Tillerson also said he wanted a constructive relationship with China.
“For many decades the United States has supported China’s rise,” said the official. “We’ve also supported India’s rise. But those two countries have risen very differently.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington said in a statement that Beijing “contributes to and defends the rules-based world order” and seeks to enhance international cooperation.
“We will never seek hegemony or engage in expansion, never pursue development at the expenses of others’ interests,” it said.
Tillerson did not say what he meant by creating an alternative to Chinese infrastructure financing, but said the Trump administration had begun a “quiet conversation” with some emerging East Asian democracies at a summit in August. He said Chinese financing was saddling countries with “enormous” debts and failing to create jobs.
“We think it’s important that we begin to develop some means of countering that with alternative financing measures.”
“We will not be able to compete with the kind of terms that China offers, but countries have to decide what are they willing to pay to secure their sovereignty and their future control of their economies and we’ve had those discussions with them as well,” he said.
