US Must Woo India Back

US President Donald Trump's actions are threatening to tilt India towards the very power America hopes it will balance.

- Tan Dawn Wei

As Chinese President Xi Jinping, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin stood in Tianjin, an inch from each other – sharing a laugh and holding hands surrounded by their earnest interpreters, one must wonder what their counterpart, US President Donald Trump, makes of such an overt display of bonhomie.

Perhaps that Mr Modi should stay in the naughty corner? Since in Mr Trump's words, the US-India relationship has been a "totally one-sided disaster!"

If anyone had any illusions that the Trump administration would realize it was making a major strategic boo-boo by punishing its indispensable Indo-Pacific partner with 50 percent tariffs and reverse course, the US leader's Truth Social outburst on Sept 1 has put paid to that.

Then on Sept 3, he offered a flat-out "no" when asked by a reporter if he would consider reducing tariffs on India.

He had signed an executive order in August to double tariffs on much of Indian goods on top of the 25 percent he handed New Delhi during his Liberation Day bonanza. The additional duties were a penalty for India's purchase of Russian oil, which the White House says was indirectly funding Russia's war against Ukraine.

New Delhi has been defiant, calling the levies "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable", refusing to back away from Russian oil. Mr Modi urged Indians to buy local.

At the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, India, China, and Russia – three countries with plenty of differences – found themselves bound by a shared frustration: the US, and in particular, Mr Trump's lack of foreign policy cohesion.

Sharing a stage with Mr Xi and Putin, Mr Modi signaled to Washington that India has alternatives, that it can work with Eurasian powers to secure markets, energy supplies, and diplomatic backing.

Pundits and the media are now calling the current state of affairs as the worst in US-India ties in decades.