US President Donald Trump may follow a balanced strategy towards India and Pakistan, unlike his predecessor Barack Obama who adopted a "pro-India" policy in his final years in office, a Chinese state-run daily said today.
"Trump's South Asia policy may be different from that of Obama, who adopted a comprehensive pro-India policy in his final years in office," an article on the website of Global Times said.
"Trump called Pakistani prime minister first after winning the election, which may be a crucial signal - he would take a more balanced strategy between New Delhi and Islamabad. If so, it is possible to see a slight recovery in the India-Pakistan relations," it said.
The article also questioned the Indian Army's 'Cold Start' doctrine to quickly gain Pakistan territory in times of war.
"Both India and Pakistan are nuclear-armed countries. Even if the 'Cold Start' strategy sounds intimidating and there is indeed a gap between the two powers' military might, it does not mean that New Delhi can easily win a landslide victory against Islamabad," it said.
According to the article, "The truth is, Pakistan has considerable strength to safeguard its sovereignty and its nuclear weapons should not be ignored."
Since the 1998 nuclear tests by India and Pakistan, it is quite common to hear such war of words like the latest one. In the meantime, tensions between the two can also be eased once in a while, it said.
"Despite the fact that New Delhi is hostile against Islamabad, initiating a war against Pakistan is not a welcoming idea among Indian people. That being said, such verbal warfare can hardly escalate into armed confrontation," it said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi once sought to restart the peace talks with Pakistan and warm up the bilateral ties by inviting his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif to attend his inauguration, which was an unprecedented act, it said.
"The bilateral relations were relaxed at that time. Yet, due to a number of other factors, such as India accusing Islamabad of terror attacks in Kashmir and New Delhi's bid to add Pakistan-based organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Masood Azhar, chief of Pakistan-based group Jaish-e-Mohammed, to the UN Security Council's terror list, India-Pakistan ties worsened," it said.
"The odds of a thaw in India-Pakistan relations are very small under such a circumstance. But once their war of words escalates to the point of armed combat, both sides will surely adopt measures to reduce the tension," it said.
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