In a fractured world, consistent approach will pay rich dividends

Someone has rightly called it the summer of our discontent. A long season in which India-US relations went from a state of stable satisfaction to stunned shock.

- Navtej Sarna

Not since the immediate aftermath of the 1998 nuclear tests has such coldness and disregard characterised the bilateral relationship. What's more, then we were expecting it to happen and were bolstered by the conviction behind our actions, this time it was a daylight ambush.

Donald Trump, despite an early meeting with the Prime Minister which indicated continuity in the relationship and a quick start to trade negotiations, inexplicably cut loose. Reciprocal tariffs of 25% on most goods were announced and a further 25% added in August, ostensibly on account of continued purchases of Russian oil by India, never mind the fact that China imported more Russian oil or that the Biden administration had itself encouraged India in this direction. That these were the highest tariffs imposed on a major trading partner by the US indicated a degree of spite. Added to that was the uneducated invective unleashed on India by Trump's hounds of the trade war, so to speak, that made Clinton's 1998 statement of coming down on India like "a ton of bricks" seem like a term of endearment.