Clearing the fog on the state of India-US relations

Notwithstanding the game of political catch between outlandish tweets and measured official responses, the vision laid out by Prime Minister Modi and President Trump in a joint statement in February, guides the different contours of the relationship at the functional level

- Rudra Chaudhuri

“The administration is bullish on India” is how a senior US official put it to me last week in Washington D.C. This sentiment would seem at odds with the broader reporting on the US-India relationship. In a Financial Times newsletter on India, one writer argued that the Indian Prime Minister (PM) “made the mistake of counting on his warm personal connection with Trump.” The general assertion being that the Indian government has mortgaged this crucial relationship to “personal friendships” alone. Others suggest that the US President’s recent luncheon with Asim Munir, the recently decorated Pakistani Field Marshal, and his “sneaky attempt” to bring PM Narendra Modi and Munir into the same room in the White House is “threatening the future of US-India partnership.”

Between social media and popular reporting, it would seem as though this relationship has been iced. Yet, in meetings with over 30 officials, experts, think tankers, and industry representatives last week, the story that emerged was diametrically opposed to the one that has been paraphrased above.

Modi’s engagements with Trump matter more than it is perhaps realised. It clearly provides a political basis of what can be achieved between the two countries, even at this time of shrinking administrative capacities in the US, and the many unplanned shifts in the bureaucratic body politic.