After Donald Trump took over as President of the US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked to him thrice on telephone. On Monday last the two nationalist leaders with a shared passion for social media met and exhibited big cordiality and warmth, something that is the culture, which world leaders can never lose sight of.
Ties between the US and India have grown steadily in last two decades. However, with Trump at the helm of affairs, India finds new uncertainties with Trump, who has shown less interest than his predecessors in maintaining a web of trade and security alliances in Asia. India has a conspicuous role in both spheres. Modi’s invitation to Trump’s daughter Ivanka to a conference of entrepreneurs in India is an indication the India would like our trade relations improve rapidly. India, like other countries in the region, has watched Trump’s cultivation of Xi with concern. His trade and immigration policies, particularly limits on visas commonly used by technology workers from India, have added to the jitters, as did his decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord.
On strategic scenario in the region, the United States and India are finding common cause in pushing back against China’s maritime ambitions. Before PM Modi’s visit, the Trump administration approved the sale of 22 surveillance drones to India, which New Delhi can use to eavesdrop on Chinese naval movements in the Indian Ocean. Trump also spoke about a huge joint naval exercise in the Indian Ocean that will involve Japanese, Indian and American warships. India has its own deep-rooted suspicions of China. Xi’s flagship development project – known as One Belt, One Road – seeks to knit together China, South and Central Asia and Europe through a vast array of ports, roads and railways, mostly funded by China. India views the project as a threat to its historically dominant position in South Asia.
The sale of the so-called Guardian drones has been built over years of deepening cooperation between the two countries on maritime security, as India searched for ways to track Chinese submarines entering the Indian Ocean, besides the seaports she has built in Sri Lanka and more recently in Gwadar, Pakistan. Though India is traditionally wary of military alliances, the two countries have explored ways to create a naval network that would balance China’s maritime expansion. Among the proposals are joint naval patrols in the South China Sea, an idea India has so far rejected but is likely to revisit in view of growing pressures from China. Intrusion of Chinese troops across the border in Sikkim into our territory and decimating of two of our border posts took place at a time when Modi was conducting talks with President Trump.
The drones, which have never before been sold to a non-NATO country, could be especially valuable if they are flown over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, giving India control of a so-called choke point that is one of China’s greatest marine vulnerabilities. The two sides have hinted at defense cooperation but without defining the region they think is vulnerable and the sources of its vulnerability.
The warning which Trump issued to Pakistan that it should stop allowing its soil to be used by jihadist for launching attacks on the neighbouring countries is nothing new. Even former President Obama, too, had showed his lips-service to this type of warning which made no impact on Pakistan and which never came in the way of the United States to cut off millions of dollars aid to Pakistan army. Yes, ahead of the meeting of two leaders, the US States Department has designated Salahu’d-Din, the chief of Pakistan-based terrorist organization called Hizb’ul-Mujahideen as a terrorist. US State Department has earlier designated some Pakistan-based terrorist organizations and terrorist leaders. They managed to continue their terror business by changing their names and reappearing under different nomenclature.
This all notwithstanding, if there is realization in the Trump administration that the time has come when global community should sincerely and practically deal with the greatest threat of this century to the democratic and peace loving people in the world viz. terrorism, then it must act now and not wait till tomorrow when more and more innocent people get killed. India has been calling international community for a concerted policy and action against the scourge of terrorism. So far only words have flown saying it was indeed a threat but no international plan and policy to counter the menace have been devised. What is of paramount importance is to understand the dimensions of religion-based terror and the goals it has set for itself. If Prime Minister Modi has succeeded in making American administration and American people understand this point, we shall call his visit a great success because it will bring great relief to mankind from the threat of destruction and decimation of life and culture looming large today.
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