Theme :-

  • 2+2 dialogues (meeting of Defence and External Affairs ministers of both countries), which were scheduled to be held on July 6th was postponed by USA. This is the third time this talks are postponed. Hence this announcement was followed by the discussions on the present India-US relations.

Impact of Trump on India-US relations :-

  • Since 1970s, India and USA started building good relations between them. Though there are minor conflicts, India-US relations continued to improve gradually. Leaders of both countries worked on maintaining good relations between India and US.
  • Donald Trump is the present president of USA since January 2017. At first Trump said that India is a true ally of US. But later he is taking several steps that are significantly impacting not just the relations between India and US, but also the relations of US with many other countries.

Things that strengthened India-US relations :-

  • India & US co-hosted Global Entrepreneurship summit in Hyderabad in 2017.
  • All Modi-Trump meetings are considered successful. Several important deals including defence deals & energy deals are signed in these meetings.
  • From many years US supported Pakistan in many aspects. It stood by Pakistan’s side in Indo-Pak war, 1971 as well. At one point United States supported Pakistan in asking United Nations to involve in Kashmir issues, which is strongly opposed by India. After Trump became president of US, he started criticizing Pakistan publicly for aiding terrorism.
  • In 2017, United States has reiterated its support for India’s opposition to China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative.
Also Read :  India-US relations

Things that weakened India-US relations :-

  • Trump openly criticized Indians in USA for stealing job of Americans. He proposed changes of rules for H1B visas, green cards that impacts Indians and other countries citizens that are working in US. It will reduce the chances of getting a job in US too. India raised this issue at one of the meetings of Modi & Trump, but the issue is not resolved.
  • Trump’s government raised taxes on its imports from several countries including India. As a consequence, India also increased taxes on its imports from US.
  • Trump criticized India for protecting domestic interests in trade and not following WTO rules.
  • Recently US imposed economic sanctions on Iran without any valid reasons. It is now asking India to stop oil imports from Iran.
  • India decided to acquire S-400 missile systems from Russia despite threats from US.

Conclusion :-

At present, US is not a reliable not a reliable partner for any country, because of Trump’s unpredictable behaviour. USA’s relations with many countries including its allies is deteriorating. The least affected till now is Indo-US relations. But the deal between India and Russia on S-400 missiles may significantly impact on India-US relations.

Pic credits : Gerry Dincher via Flickr under CC 2.0

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1 Comment

  • Eulah Bejger, Mar 23, 2019 @ 6:05 am Reply

    Great post but I was wanting to know if you could write a litte more on this subject?I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit further.Thanks!

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