Foreign Policy of The Barack Obama Administration - Asia - South Asia

South Asia

Further information: South Asian Foreign Policy of the Barack Obama administration

For purposes of U.S. foreign policy, South Asia consists of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The Obama administrations's South Asian foreign policy was outlined in "The Obama Administration's Policy on South Asia" by Robert O. Blake, Jr., Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, who wrote "ur goal was and remains to support the development of sovereign, stable, democratic nations, integrated into the world economy and cooperating with one another, the United States, and our partners to advance regional security and stability."

At the start of the Obama administration there were several regional hot spots within South Asia including Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. Several conflicts exist within the region including an ongoing war in Afghanistan and an ongoing conflict in North-West Pakistan.

Blake described Obama's views of the "international effort in Afghanistan and Pakistan as a single theater of immense strategic importance to security – not only of the United States – but of the world." He goes on to say "Afghanistan and Pakistan are two distinct countries, but we cannot succeed in either Afghanistan or Pakistan without stability in both." The Obama administration believes that "Afghanistan and Pakistan can be a bridge that links South and Central Asia, rather than a barrier that divides them" and that "much work remains to be done to turn that vision into a reality. On February 18, 2009, Obama announced that the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan would be bolstered by 17,000 new troops by the summer. Obama also ordered the expansion of airstrikes to include the organization of Baitullah Mehsud, the militant chief reportedly behind the 2007 assassination of Benazir Bhutto, as priority targets. Some foreign policy analysts consider this to be a continuation and/or an expansion of the Bush administration's foreign policy in Pakistan.

There is also tension between India and Pakistan who both possess nuclear weapons. This conflict has been ongoing since August 1947 when India and Pakistan were created from British India. Recent developments in this conflict involve the Kashmir region with Pakistan controlling the northwest portion, India controlling the central and southern portion and the People's Republic of China controlling the northeastern portion of Kashmir. Criticism has been leveled at the Obama administration for its apparent lack of an early response to U.S. foreign policy with India. The former director for South Asia in the National Security Council in the Bush administration, Xenia Dormandy claims that India is America's indispensable ally in the region and that the Obama administration should take steps to improve relations with India.