Tariff War Weakening Security in Indo-Pacific

Were the outbursts against India motivated by a desire to get back the 20% stake sold by Rosneft to India after Exxon exited the project following pressure from President Biden?

- M.D. NALAPAT

It is proving an impossible task to decipher the strategic cord binding the tactical moves that President Trump has been making on India. Perhaps because there is no linkage, and that each of his actions are to be taken as individual acts absent a strategic motive. Whatever, Donald Trump has done the impossible; he has reversed the overwhelming support he had among the public in India when he took charge in the White House to an even greater number who have a dislike of not just President Trump but the US itself as a consequence of the manner in which it has dealt with India. After several countries bowed to his diktat out of fear of his reaction if they did not, India under PM Modi refused to budge when he demanded unlimited access to US grain and dairy products. Apparently, Trump would like India to open the door to purchases of surplus US grain and dairy products, an action that would send several millions of small producers in India on the brink of, or across, the boundaries of suicide. Those on the US side pushing for such concessions may do so devoid of concern for such a situation. The Government of India, however, cannot display the same attitude of indifference to the potential havoc some of the demands of President Trump could wreak among the people of India, were they to be conceded. Day by day, action by action, President Trump is proving to be accurate the description of his niece Mary Trump that the present occupant of the White House lacks even a fragment of empathy for those less privileged than himself. The appurtenances of power ar