Low-key diplomacy consolidates Indo-US ties

Modi's first meeting with Trump may have lacked the razzmatazz of his earlier visits

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first meeting with US President Donald Trump may have lacked the razzmatazz of his earlier visits but nuanced preparatory diplomacy appears to have created a platform for steady consolidation of ties that began under George W Bush. Given the manifest unpredictability of the current White House incumbent, this is no small achievement. Indeed, unlike Mr Trump’s relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which have swung from aversion to lavish friendship and back, Mr Modi has enjoyed a stable relationship with the US president. Mr Trump’s consistent denunciation of Pakistan’s support for terrorist groups — expressed in the short shrift accorded to its prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, in Saudi Arabia — and India’s developmental record in Afghanistan have provided a strong common foundation. This equilibrium in Indo-US ties owes much to the Indian foreign policy establishment’s careful management of the optics. 

Acknowledgement of the Trump administration’s ambivalent view of immigrants encouraged Mr Modi to eschew the stadium rock show-style meets with the Indian-American community in favour of a smaller meeting at a hotel. Even though a well-placed leader under Mr Modi’s byline in the Wall Street Journal underlined the robust “digital and scientific partnerships between the two countries”, a meeting with US technology giants may not have yielded visible results in terms of concessions on H1B visas, the single biggest issue roiling Indian information technology companies. But discreet give-and-take negotiations may yield better dividends than overt special pleadings, especially given Mr Trump’s explicit demands for reducing trade barriers for US exports. In this context, a $2-billion deal to buy Honeywell-manufactured Guardian drones and an invitation to the president’s daughter and advisor, Ivanka Trump, to lead a delegation of US businesspeople visiting India later this year check two key boxes for the Trump White House, jobs and family ties. 

If there were unambiguous gains for India, they came in the State Department’s designation of Hizbul Mujahideen leader and Kashmir-focused jihadi Syed Salahuddin as a “global terrorist”, a move that enables the US to block assets and entities that support his activities. This move by the US as well as multiple mentions of terrorism in Monday’s joint statement are manifestly to India’s advantage in its struggles in Kashmir. The better-than-expected outcome of this two-day visit, however, comes with some caution, principally in terms of what closer US ties may mean to the rising power over one mountain range, China, and its ambitions for regional domination embedded in the One Belt One Road initiative. Mr Modi made an oblique reference to this by talking about strategic cooperation with the US in the “Indo-Pacific region”. China had not failed to express its opinion of closer Indo-US relations. A day ahead of Mr Modi’s visit to Washington, it reiterated its refusal to endorse India’s joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group and barred some 50 Indian pilgrims on their annual Kailash-Mansarovar journey from crossing the Nathu La pass. For Mr Modi, thus, managing relations with the superpower closer to home will demand similar shrewd diplomacy.