Can India trust America now? – Firstpost

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s White House meeting with President Donald Trump was by all accounts a success. The two men like each other. If President Joe Biden left doubts about where the United States stood with regard to the Canada-India dispute, Trump did not. For the US president, Modi is a friend; Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is worthy only of derision.

Trump largely delivered. He offered India F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. If the sale goes forward, it would be a coup for relations. Military sales are not one-off events counted in money but rather down payments on a decades-long relationship characterised by joint training, maintenance, and interoperability. Indian investment in the F-35 would also signal both that India was pivoting away from Russia as its primary defence market and that the United States trusted India to keep its top-tier technology secure from Russian and Chinese eyes.

The US decision to extradite Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana for his role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks is important for three reasons: First, it shows the United States is not Canada. Second, this decision sets a precedent for extraditing other terrorists, like those who attacked the Indian consulate in San Francisco or plotted attacks with Pakistani agents. Third, it also shows that Pakistan’s authorities are uncooperative and dishonest when asked to bring terrorists to justice, including those responsible for the 26/11 attacks.

The two leaders also discussed narrowing the trade gap with oil and gas sales, discussed tariffs, and agreed to begin negotiating a trade agreement later this year. Both leaders agreed to a goal to raise bilateral trade to $500 billion or more than 43 lakh crore rupees.

Trump’s subsequent revelation that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) sought to increase voter turnout in India might anger Indians. Democracy requires free and fair elections, not free and fair elections that result in an outcome left-leaning and sheltered US bureaucrats and diplomats like. It would be unfair to direct that fury toward Trump, however, as he is more the whistleblower than the guilty party.

Still, Indians must hold Trump to his word. The US president likes to grandstand, but his weakest element has always been implementation. This was especially true during his first term, but when he surrounds himself with yes men, it is too easy for Trump to craft a new reality that ignores the commitments he made.

If Trump is serious, Modi, India’s Ministry of External Affairs, and then Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) should take the lead on next steps:

• They should invite Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard or Director of Central Intelligence John Ratcliffe to New Delhi to receive information on other suspected terrorists now seeking shelter in the United States to win their extradition.

• Indian officials should also invite Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to Delhi to discuss the scheme by which Khalistani militants make false asylum claims to travel to the United States and then serve as anchors to bring family members, all the while laundering money and funding extremism. Washington should not differentiate between cartel members sneaking across the US-Mexico border and the Khalistani mafia taking advantage of naïve American immigration officials.

• External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar should invite Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a test: If Rubio adheres to the tired equivalency formula in which officials visit both New Delhi and Islamabad on the same trip, the Modi administration can conclude that substance does not buffet Trump’s rhetoric. Perhaps Rubio can accompany a new US ambassador. India deserves someone with the stature of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, not a scandal-plagued mayor.

• Finally, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth should lay the framework for the F-35 sale. Again, this will be a test to see if the State Department and Pentagon bureaucracies as well as key Congressmen are on board. Whether yes or no, clarity on the answer will go a long way to determine Trump’s sincerity.

India deserves a real partnership for the 21st century; whether Trump is serious, however, remains to be seen.

Michael Rubin is director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.