Don’t see Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency as something new, says Phil Midland, president of Strategic Renaissance 21, a think-tank based in the US.
Speaking as a guest on The Gist, he underscored that Trump’s return reflects continuity with Prime Minister Modi, continuity with China’s President Xi Jinping and a whole host of world leaders. Recall that Trump was president when the Quad was revived (in 2017) and next year India will host the leaders summit of Quad.
China will watch very closely how the Quad and the bilateral relationships shape and move forward.
“But we need to put some meat on the bones (of Quad),” he said, underscoring that India and Japan are at the core of the Quad and “how do we employ that in a stable non-threatening way … in ways that will be understandable … not threatening to neighbours in the north (China).”
The China-US equation Midland said, could be likened to gaming. “In the Chinese sense, gaming is not only strategic … but gaming and their employment of digital technologies (like India) … they’re gaming the situation out.”
“The Chinese are not going to be worried,” he said, “but they may need to adjust the game. And we, whether it is Quad, US, India, Japan, we will have to get ourselves ready for a sophisticated new type of gaming. Strategic not in a negative sense, but in a positive development sense.”
The Trump administration, he says, must understand the multiple factors before the world right now, look regionally and sub-regionally. Northeast Asia has some very special challenges because of the North Korea-Russia new relationship. Southeast Asia has Asean which has been incredibly successful and now South Asia.
“You’ve (India) have gone a long way from the Non-Aligned Movement to a real actor, protector, enabler of not just the Indian Ocean region but Africa as well … and the new US administration will absolutely engage sub-regionally and in cooperation.”
In his view, the Chinese will factor this in and there will be moves and counter moves and “I think we have the ability, all of us because we are digitally enabled, to play the game.”
Tune in for more in this conversation with Phil Midland, President, Strategic Renaissance 21
