CLOSE PARTNERSHIP WITH INDIA VITAL FOR U.S. GLOBAL SECURITY

Absence of a trade deal with India would seriously compromise the US in the ongoing hybrid confrontation with China. Whether a deal will come about or not depends in large part on the White House.

- M.D. NALAPAT

Lead negotiator Piyush Goyal appears to have returned to New Delhi with the outline of what the United States expects of a trade deal.

Were a deal to take place, that would go a long way in setting back India-US ties on the constructive track they were prior to the tariff controversy. Elsewhere in this edition, it has been pointed out how hopefully there seems a strategy behind the seemingly erratic actions of President Trump. Assisted by Vice-President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others in the top tier of the Trump administration, President Donald Trump has been preparing the US for the possibility of a kinetic conflict with the competing superpower, China. Were the CCP-controlled People's Republic of China to achieve its longstanding goal of surpassing the US in GDP and in global influence, it would be a disaster for not just the US but other democracies as well, notably the most populous, India. Given the irreconcilability of their objectives, the US to retain its primacy and China intent on replacing it, a sudden eruption of existing flashpoints could trigger a kinetic confrontation between the two superpowers despite what the White House seems to be favouring. In such a situation, it is obvious that India would prefer the US to China as the winner of the superpower contest. Indeed, India has been locating rare earth, fossil fuel and other essentials of the modern economy through the foreign tours of Prime Minister Narendra Modi assisted by his key lieutenants. In PPP terms, India has the third largest GDP in the world, and is poised for higher growth than even the impressive rates the country has achieved during Modi 3.0.