Rebuilding ties, brick by brick

Trade talks restart as Washington and Delhi seek to set aside differences and pursue common interests

After weeks of criticism of India’s trade policies and Russian energy purchases by the Trump administration in the US, chief trade negotiators of the two countries are meeting in New Delhi to chart a way forward in finalising a bilateral trade agreement. The US has sent assistant trade representative Brendan Lynch to India after positive social media exchanges between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi pointed to a thaw in the relationship that was hit by strains not witnessed in the past two decades. The US ambassador-nominee to India, Sergio Gor, widely seen as an enforcer for Trump, too has done his bit to try and salvage the relationship by saying the two sides are “not far apart” on trade issues. Trump’s 50% tariffs, including a punitive levy on India for buying Russian crude oil, derailed negotiations on the bilateral trade deal in August and there is an expectation that the meeting between the two negotiators could lead to the sixth round of trade talks.

While India works towards a trade deal with the US and rebuilding the overall relationship, it would be with the awareness that the fundamental basis for these ties has changed and it will not be business as usual under Trump. (AFP)

There can be no denying the fact that Trump’s quirky and unconventional trade-related decisions have done serious damage to the India-US relationship. Modi’s recent visit to China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit was meant to signal to the US that India continues to have options and cannot be taken for granted. Other countries such as Japan and South Korea may have capitulated to the US on trade-related matters mainly to secure their long-standing strategic and security relations, but the same tactic has not worked with countries that are not treaty allies of the US, such as Brazil and India. Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has made it clear that his country’s democracy and sovereignty are not on the table, and Modi too has spoken of securing the interests of India’s farmers and small producers at any cost.

A transactional leader such as Trump cares little for any talk of shared values and democracy that brought India and the US together, and has shown little concern about the harm done to India’s interests by his move to get closer to Pakistan in the immediate aftermath of Operation Sindoor in May. While India works towards a trade deal with the US and rebuilding the overall relationship, it would be with the awareness that the fundamental basis for these ties has changed and it will not be business as usual under Trump. But talks must be persisted with for the US remains a major market for Indian businesses and India-US ties are a multi-dimensional relationship that extends beyond mere trading of goods.