Thaw in Indo-US ties?

Special relations are broader than doubling bilateral trade to $500 billion

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reciprocation of US President Donald Trump's comments on their friendship and the special relations between the two nations is a welcome indication that the focus remains on the substance of their strategic partnership. Trump is highly unpredictable but there is a need to filter out the noise, which has a lot to do with his frustrations in not hammering out a trade deal with India on his terms. India's top leadership, however, has responded with admirable restraint to Trump's provocative statements. Special relations have strong bipartisan support in the US that has been assiduously built over the last 25 years. Trump is backtracking from his remarks that India and Russia have been "lost to deepest, darkest China" after Modi's visit to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's summit. Contrary to Trump's fears, India's bonhomie with China is hardly signs of an embrace of the dragon but the exercise of its strategic autonomy. India's efforts to repair ties with China—that have been in deep freeze after a deadly border clash five years ago—is p