Washington: With political setup changing in Indo-Pacific region, the United States is eyeing India in its optimistic approach to gain control of geo-political equations there. On Monday, United States said that India has got the ‘capability and potential to play crucial role in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, Alex Wong, said that it is in the interest of United States as well as the entire region that India plays an increasingly weighty role in the region. He was briefing reporters on the Trump administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy while he made these comments.

“India as a nation has invested in a free and open order. It is a democracy. It is a nation that can anchor free and open order in the Indo-Pacific region. And it’s our policy to ensure that India does play that role and that it becomes over time a more influential player in the region,” Mr Wang said.

The use of term ‘Indo-Pacific’ instead of the previous ‘Asia Pacific’ by the Trump administration, according to his assertation “acknowledges the historical reality and the current day reality that South Asia and in particular, India plays a key role” in the Pacific, in East Asia and Southeast Asia.

“That has been true for thousands of years and it’s true today,” he said.

“India for sure has the capability and potential to play a more weighty role,” Mr Wang said in response to a question adding that this role is on all fronts, whether it is security, economic or diplomatic.

“I think one great example that you’ve seen recently is that Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi invited the leaders of ASEAN to New Delhi for national (Republic) day,” the top State Department official said.

The presence of ASEAN leaders at the Republic Day event was a truly significant sign of the increasing ties that India is pursuing specifically in Southeast Asia.

“It is not just India that is pursuing a greater engagement with East Asia and Southeast Asia, there are a number of crisscrossing strategies throughout the region,” he said.

He further went on describing the stages of US President’s Administration and said that first year of the Trump Administration was about introducing the strategic concept to the region; which can be called as free and open Indo-Pacific Strategy. The rest of the years of the Trump administration is the implementation part of the strategy, he said.

US considers India to be a strategic point to maintain its existing as well as future engagements. It is because of this consideration that time and again it had openly expressed its optimism of India being a lead partner in the region for its future policies.

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