PM-Trump meet to set agenda for bilateral ties
Minister Narendra Modi heads to the US later this month for his first meeting with President Donald Trump and expectations, at least on the Indian side, are modest.
No big bang announcements are on the cards during the visit being seen as an opportunity for the two leaders to unveil their vision of the bilateral relationship that has grown steadily over the last 20 years.
Modi will be in the US on June 25 and 26, days before he goes to Israel.
At the White House, talks are expected to focus on familiar issues: Terrorism, economic cooperation, greater salience on Indo-Pacific and stepping up defence ties.
There are some concerns, too. New Delhi would want clarity from the Trump administration on the H-1B regime, the shortterm visa for skilled workers which is crucial to Indian software majors’ overseas business.
There is a cloud over the cleanenergy push, a growing area of cooperation, after Trump pulled the US out of the Paris climate pact aimed at fighting global warming by reducing carbon emissions.
Still, it will be the Modi-Trump meeting itself which would be most critical. The two leaders, who are not conventional by any yardstick of politics, will get to know each other and set an “agenda for their future”.
Continuity is at the heart of the US-India ties. But what may worry New Delhi is the way Trump has gone about his foreign policy. His willingness to reset the terms of engagement with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) allies and Paris pact pullout point to big shifts, and not happy ones, in the US stance.
The US’s ties with Russia and China have not given out much to draw any conclusion as to where Trump places India in the region.
“Since the Trump administration came to power, ties have not flagged but have progressed with same pace as under the (previous) Obama administration,” external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj told media earlier this month.
Officials say both sides value the ties. One of them said cooperation would continue in the area of counter-terrorism. “During his visit to Saudi Arabia, the President did mention India as a victim of terrorism,” a source said.
That he didn’t mention Pakistan — a frontline state for the US -- as the victim of terror should bring some cheer to India. Trump not meeting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during Saudi Arabia holds a symbolic significance for Delhi.
Past US administrations have spoken out against terror emanating from Pakistani soil but little has been done on the ground to change that. Trump is expected to take a harder line.