New phase in India-US ties

India will have to deal with unpredictability

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High on New Delhi's list of objectives prior to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington would have been the need to demonstrate that India is a willing and active partner for the new administration, led by President Donald Trump. Indeed, while Mr Trump was welcoming Mr Modi to Washington, his vice-president was speaking at the Munich Security Conference – a speech that effectively laid out the many ways in which the new dispensation in the US disagreed with its allies in Europe. Mr Modi's visit will have attempted to convey that, unlike the troublesome Europeans, India is a far more congenial partner for an America being remade by a second Trump term. The positive atmosphere that Indian officials hoped to create is reflected, to an extent, in the joint statement issued following the visit.