Trump’s 2.0 Foreign Policy Priorities: Implications for US-South Asia Relations
Watch it on the NIICE Nepal YouTube channel
Event Report
On Thursday, January 23rd 2025, a webinar titled ‘Trump’s Foreign Policy Priorities and its Implications for the US-South Asia Relations’ was conducted by the Nepal Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement (NIICE).
The event was chaired by Dr. Pramod Jaiswal, Research Director at NIICE. Meanwhile, Ms. Lisa Curtis was the speaker at this webinar. She is the Senior Fellow and Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program Centre for a New American Security (CNAS) and she is a foreign policy and national security expert with over twenty years of service in the U.S. government, including at the National Security Council (NSC), CIA, State Department, and Capitol Hill. She also served as the Deputy Assistant to the President and NSC Senior Director for South and Central Asia from 2017 to 2021.
Director Curtis gave her insights and predictions on the past, current and future bilateral relations between the United States and the South Asian nations like India, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. She gave an overview of the US-India relationship during the first Trump Administration, wherein she spoke about the elevation of the bilateral relations due to the “removal of critical technology controls on India, elevation of India to strategic trade authorization; one status had authorized India to be the first non-NATO ally to receive armed drone technology and a lot of support from the Trump Administration to India during its border crisis with China in 2020.”
According to Curtis, this bilateral and personal relationship between President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Modi is likely to continue during the second Trump Administration. India is going to be an important ally in the Indo-Pacific Strategy of the US as Secretary of State Rubio had confirmed the meeting of QUAD members in the upcoming future.
She points out that the US and India’s objectives are common and are likely to be smooth like before in the upcoming Trump days and will collaborate on certain common factors like countering an aggressive China in the Indo-Pacific despite a source of friction among the two on ‘trade tariffs’.
Curtis further explained in detail about the focus of the Trump Administration on countries like China wherein it is likely to follow a ‘mixed approach’, the primary focus of the government will be on the contending issues like ‘ending the Russia-Ukraine War, crisis in the Middle East’, and Trump will try to counter an aggressive China in the Indo-Pacific and South China Sea Regions, while Trump also invited President Xi Jinping to his inauguration ceremony which he did not attend.
She had focused on other South Asian countries’ relations with the new Trump Administration. She mentioned with an emphasis that the US approach now would be on monitoring China’s relations with South Asian nations like Nepal, India Sri Lanka and others in terms of it expanding its military coercion in the region and its economic agendas like ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ with the help of India and to make India dominant in the Indian Ocean Region.
Curtis covered all current issues going on in the South Asian nations like the political crisis going on in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and the resignation of Sheikh Hasina and its future implications in the region and its relations with the US.
She further highlighted the importance of these nations to remain “democratic” as the US always allies with democratic countries and she gave the example of Nepal how the nation still remains to be a democracy despite the internal issues it had faced and continues to face like Maoist Insurgency, the changing of the government and elections. It can be said that Curtis tried to give a lens that the US will be in partnership with countries of South Asia like India and Nepal in the future.
Curtis then briefly but very concretely spoke about the turmoil and political issues of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and how the USA will support Bangladesh in helping it overcome its turmoil and enter into a new phase and Pakistan’s famous political leader and former Prime Minister, Imran Khan being sentenced to fourteen years of imprisonment and its repercussions in the nation. She conveyed that the USA’s agenda in South Asia will be ‘democracy’ and helping nations recover and sustain their democracies which it already is doing.
She gave an overview about Climate Change and USA’s withdrawal from the Paris Accord implying that it won’t primarily focus on Climate Change and its developments. But, she did mention US-Nepal’s relations in the ‘energy sector’ and said ‘disaster preparedness’ will remain an area of focus between the two nations.
Curtis spoke a great deal about Nepal-US relations wherein she said the focus is also on ‘trade, investments and assistance’ and she spoke about the ‘Millenium Challenge Corporation’ (MCC) Grant and her experience from her visit to Nepal last month. She expressed that she was happy to finally see the MCC Agreement work and the Way Forward in Nepal.
Lastly, she spoke about the Taliban and US relations that are not very good and that the Taliban has continued to not allow education of women and she spoke about ‘terrorism’ and its contacts with terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISP. She concluded with her remarks about SAARC and the Indo-Pacific Strategy of the Trump Administration.
This event report was prepared by Anoushka Kashyap, NIICE Intern.