Paul Kapur, Donald Trump’s Indian-origin pick for the role of assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he would pursue security cooperation with Pakistan where beneficial to US interests. On India, Kapur said US and India share a host of common interests, including both of their commitment to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region, “which is not dominated by China”. “If confirmed, I will work to further advance US-India relations and put our partnership on course to realize its tremendous promise,” Kapur said. “On Pakistan, if confirmed, I will pursue security cooperation where beneficial to US interests, while seeking opportunities for bilateral collaboration in trade and investment,” he said. “South Asia recently avoided a costly conflict, with the Vice President and Secretary Rubio intensely engaged on the issue. If confirmed, I will continue to promote longstanding US security interests with India and Pakistan through the pursuit of peace and stability, and the fightagainst terrorism,” he said on India-Pakistan relations before elaborating on his vision about what he would do with other countries, diplomatically.

‘I visited India often during my childhood’

Paul Kapur also spoke about his Indian origin at the Senate meeting and said he was born in New Delhi to an Indian father and an American mother. “Although I visited India often during my childhood, I grew up in the United States as a thoroughly American kid, never imagining that my career would someday return me to the place where I was born. But I became interested in studying the region in graduate school and soon was working on it as a scholar and as a government official,” he said. Paul Kapur would succeed Donald Lu pending Senate confirmation. He is a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Kapur has also been affiliated with Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. From 2020 to 2021, he served on the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, focusing on South and Central Asia, Indo-Pacific strategy, and US-India relations.