Compass World: Namaste Modi
President Trump, left, referred to India's Prime Minister Modi, right as "one of America's greatest, most devoted, and most loyal friends." (Wikimedia Commons)
Leader of the World’s Oldest Democracy Meets Leader of the World’s Largest
President Donald Trump was cheered by more than 100,000 Indians wearing cardboard Trump masks and “Namaste Trump” hats in the new Motera cricket stadium on February 24. His visit to India highlights not only his personal relationship with Modi but also growing U.S.-India ties.
Crazy For Donald?
More people may like Trump in India than in the United States. A Pew Research Center survey found that 56 percent of Indian adults are confident in Trump's decisions on the world stage. This rating is quadruple what he had in 2016, when a measly 14 percent of Indians approved. Much of this increase can be attributed to Trump's cozy relations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who appeared onstage with Trump at a 50,000-person rally in Houston, Texas, in September. Trump referred to Modi at the "Howdy, Modi!" event in Texas as "one of America's greatest, most devoted, and most loyal friends."
Motorcycles For Mangoes
At the center of Trump's visit is trade. The U.S. is India's second-largest trading partner: trade in goods and services reached a high of $142.6 billion in 2018. Along with this growth in trade has come tension over tariffs, intellectual property rights, and price controls.
While Modi and Trump may be buddy-buddy, trade relations have been a thorny issue between the U.S. and Indian governments. Trump in the past has expressed his ire over India’s high tariffs on the U.S. motorcycle company Harley Davidson. In 2007, India agreed to import Harley Davidsons, and the U.S. agreed to allow imports of Indian mangoes. India continued to impose a 75-percent import tariff on the bikes, which was eventually brought down to 50 percent in 2017 at Trump’s urging.
In 2018, Trump imposed new tariffs on aluminium and steel imports, including from India. New Delhi responded with tariffs on U.S. on almonds, chickpeas, and apples. In the ensuing trade talks, India wanted to restore its status in the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), an institution that provides duty-free access to the U.S. market for exports from designated developing nations (Trump had previously terminated India’s GSP membership). No such deal has come to fruition. The two countries argued over U.S. demands for access to India’s poultry and dairy markets, Indian price controls on medical devices, and Indian data storage regulation.
The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship?
Although a trade deal will not come with Trump to India, 24 Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawks will. The countries announced India’s purchase of $2.6 billion worth of the Lockheed Martin naval helicopters. The United States has become India’s top arms supplier, over Russia, which has supplied India with the majority of its arms since the Cold War. As U.S. relations with Pakistan have grown increasingly strained, India and the U.S. have deepened their ties accordingly.
These new ties can also be attributed to a shared belief that China challenges their interests. While the U.S. faces off against China in the South China Sea, India faces off against China along their shared 2,500-mile border. The United States and India have bonded over their shared distrust of China before. In the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. gave India significant economic aid, military assistance, and—after the 1962 Sino-Indian War—an air defence agreement and intelligence sharing.
Although India and the U.S. agree that a partnership is essential to tackle the challenges posed by China, they disagree over the details. India, for instance, does not worry about China’s revisionist challenge to the Western-led world order. It also does not agree with America’s unilateral tariff wars. The two countries also disagree on whether Russia is part of the solution or part of the problem. Both governments question each other’s willingness to play a balancing role in the region. If they do not resolve their divergent strategies, neither China’s actions alone nor Trump and Modi’s “beautiful friendship” will be enough to power any meaningful partnership.