- People closely following the fast unfolding geostrategic and geopolitical occurrences would have noticed how the US President Donald Trump’s policies are causing consternation and devastation, leading to altered equations vis-à-vis alliances, partnerships, and relationships around the world. As you are aware, in the last couple of decades, the Indo-US relationship has gained strength, courtesy of the successive governments from both sides contributing to forging a strategic partnership benefiting the two largest democracies in the world immensely. However, the imposition of a tariff to the tune of 25% on Indian products, followed by an additional 25% for sourcing Russian crude oil, must have caused the once very strong partnership to look shaky.
PC: Compass by Rau’s IAS
- The maverick, petulant, and impetuous Trump would have believed that Indian leadership could be easily bullied by stressing on providing access to US products like soya and corn. The Indian agriculture scenario and any matters related to farmers are not only sensitive in nature but also crucial to the political narrative that none of the mainstream parties could simply forego. Thus, the Indian think tank was always known to not yield any grounds for the American products like soya and corn to make a presence here. This particular stand of Indian leadership must have weighed in heavily for the Trump administration to believe that the Narendra Modi-led government could be pressured by adopting other means, like cozying up to Pakistan.
PC: Times of India
- Mind you, in his first term, Trump had been most vocal about Pakistan’s culpability in not only fostering the terrorists causing mayhem across the universe but also critical about stopping aid to ensure the military-terrorist axis is blunted through sustained measures. All that seems to have been placed on the back burner ever since India firmly stood against Trump’s whims and fancies on products/tariffs. Of course, the Middle East and West Asian crisis alongside the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict have had a defining role to essay in the Trump administration’s changed priorities. Most apparently, Trump’s repeated claims of playing a mediator, denied categorically by India, in the recent Indo-Pakistan conflict following the Pahalgam attack, also had a role to play, you see.
PC: Mint
The twisted and convoluted happenings of late in the crisis-ridden region have led Trump to change his priorities by opening up the door for the desperate Pakistani leadership. Little wonder, Trump assumes that cozying up to Pakistan would make India act differently. Far from it, the Indian leadership knows better how the US always places its own interests above anything else, including forsaking the strategic relationship built over the last few decades. The optics of the Pakistani military leading the talks with the civilian head merely joining the meeting with Trump make little difference to the Indian leadership. The moot point to ponder over here is how long this newfound camaraderie between the US and Pakistan would sustain. Trump may simply lose interest.
