The 28-29 June G20 summit offered US President Donald Trump a critical opportunity to consolidate relations with two nations – Japan and India – at the heart of attempts to manage the rise of China. Both are vital to an emerging Indo-Pacific security architecture and the advancement of regional democracy. Instead, the Osaka meeting of the world’s biggest economies wrapped up with Washington’s relations with New Delhi and Tokyo still clouded by trade disputes and strategic uncertainty, writes Ramesh Thakur in the following two analyses.
READ THE TWO ANALYSES
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Trump’s erratic diplomacy misses G20 opportunity in Japan
President Donald Trump gave us forewarning during the presidential election campaign in 2016 of his ignorance of high strategy. Three times candidate Trump asked a foreign policy adviser: if we have nuclear weapons, why can’t we use them?
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Trump’s India Policy: the need for strategic coherence
The distance from hubris to delusion is short and the Trump administration is bent on covering it in a sprint in its India policy writes Renowned scholar, Professor Ramesh Thakur.