News behind the News – 08 July 2019

JULY 08, 2019 News the Newsbehind 21

indiaintheinternationalkaleidoscope

IN

THIS

SECTION

INDIA - US: INCREASING

FRUSTRATIONS

21 INDIA - US: INCREASING FRUSTRATIONS

23 COMMENT : US-IRAN CONFRONTATION WILL HIT INDIA: NEED FOR SOME CLASSICAL

DIPLOMACY

24 INDO- PACIFIC: ASEAN AND INDIA SHARE A COMMON OUTLOOK

26 COMMENT : A STRATEGIC SHIFT IN INDIA-SAUDI TIES? TRANSCENDING THE BUYER-SELLER

DYNAMIC

At the G-20 summit at Osaka
Prime Minister Modi had 20 meetings,
including nine bilaterals, eight pull-
aside engagements, and of the Russia-
India-China, Japan-U.S.-India and
Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa
groupings. Th e meeting with President
Trump, though brief, was important
considering the increasing diff erences
in bilateral relations. Th e outcome was
however, uneventful.

Writing about US expectations
fi rst, K C Singh, former secretary,
MEA says that having helped India on
the Balakot attack, assisted in getting
back pilot Abhinandan Vardhaman
and downed by Pakistan over Pakistan-
occupied Kashmir, and pressurised
China to blacklist Masood Azhar, the
Jaish-e-Mohammed leader, the US
“expected that a re-elected Modi would
be amenable to closer cooperation on
issues it considers critical and about
which frustration had mounted within
the US administration.”

Th at did not happen and it, among
other issues, prompted the US to
withdraw India’s preferred access to its
market, for certain categories under
the Generalised System of Preferences
(GSP). India, in turn announced
retaliatory tariff s before US Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo’s visit.

SENDING MIXED MESSAGES

But the messages from the US have
been mixed. Even as Trump before the

G 20 meeting with Modi criticised

India for “unacceptable” “very high

tariff s”, the White House tweeted after

the G 20 bilateral meeting between the

two leaders, that India “shared ideas to

reduce America’s trade defi cit, enhance

defence cooperation and safeguard

peace and stability throughout the

Indian Ocean and Pacifi c region”.

Th e Pompeo visit was also “used

by both sides to assess the hurdles

and solutions, considering the overall

upward trajectory of a relationship

nursed since 2001, the days of George

W. Bush’s presidency.”

The fundamental problems,

however, persist, according to Singh.

“Trump, unlike two of his illustrious

predecessors, mixes up strategic and

transactional issues.” He “views trade

issues purely in a bilateral context.” Th e

outcome of the resumed trade talks thus

remains uncertain.”

Modi nevertheless, “has posited

two issues of interest to Mr Trump:

technical cooperation to develop a

counter to China’s Huawei and defence

purchases, particularly for made-in-

India job creation. Both sound good

on paper but assume that the US will

in the process give India a waiver from

the Countering America’s Adversaries

Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA)

sanctions or accept that India cannot

cut off relations with Iran in entirety.

India has already turned off the Iran

oil imports but is hardly likely to

abandon Russian weapons purchases,

including of the US’s much-detested

S-400 missile systems, as well as its