Trump trip to India aimed at domestic audience in US

Feb 24, 2020

New Delhi: Prime Minister Modi and American President Donald Trump flaunting their close bonding in front of 1.25 lakh Indians in Modi’s hometown Ahmedabad in Gujarat seems to be the only major takeaway from the two day visit of the seventh US president to India since India’s independence.

Donald Trump during his entire trip kept referring to the massive welcome he received in Ahmedabad for the “Namaste Trump” event and the way people lined the entire length of the road from the airport to the venue.

The ‘Howdy Modi’ event organized in Houston welcoming Modi last year in US almost paled in comparision where about 50,000 Indian diaspora gathered to witness both these leaders , in front of the 1.25 lakh spectators sitting in the stands of world’s biggest cricket stadium for the Namaste Trump event.
Trump clearly gloated over the fact that this was the biggest such welcome ever for a foreign dignitary and modestly stressed that it was for his country the United States.

The trip had all the pomp and show, photo ops and pageantry whether at Sabarmati Ashram,the Taj Mahal, Raj Ghat or state dinner at Rashtrapati Bhavan but somehow missed on the concrete substantial outcomes

The much talked about comprehensive trade deal did not take off ( Trump himself had mentioned he would be talking trade as India had been hitting US very hard for many,many years with one of the highest tariffs in the world , just before he embarked for India).

Actually there was need for more time to flesh out a comprehensive trade deal working at all the nity grities, particularly when he called Mr Modi a very tough negotiat0r. With Trump’s vision to Make America Great Again and Modi’s vision of Make in India, the two sides will need to negotiate for a long to make a trade deal which is a win-win situation for both.

On the burning issue of CAA (several people killed in north east Delhi in violent clashes between pro and anti CAA protesters with communal overtones) and religious freedom despite several attempts by the media to nail him down, the astute diplomat that Mr Trump is skirted the whole issue by stating “I don’t want to say anything on CAA. It is up to India. I hope it will take the right decision for its people.”

On religious freedom, another controversial issue he said that he discussed it with Prime Minister Modi “Who wants people to have religious freedom in India..If you look back India has worked hard for religious freedom.”

Clearly President Trump was not interested in touching any delicate controversial topic or the ongoing violence in the capital, which may be blown out of proportion by the media or he may be portrayed as interfering in the internal affairs of another country. Particularly with a section alleging that the clashes were a part of a conspiracy to tarnish India’s name during the visit of President Donald Trump.
Only substantial agreement which came out of the talks on strategic issues, trade ties, counter-terror and energy cooperation was in Defence co operation to purchase more than USD 3 billion of advanced American military equipment, including Apache and MH-60 Romeo helicopters.

On issue of cross border terrorism too Mr Trump’s response was that Pakistan was taking steps to control it. He, however. said both the countries had vowed to fight against ”Islamic terrorism”. On Kashmir too he said he had good relations with both the Prime Ministers but wanted to leave Kashmir solution in their hands.

So Trump went back without ruffling any feathers with a lot of good wishes, bonhomie. Perhaps in an election year, for the most powerful man on earth the whole trip was meant for his domestic audience to witness the adulation he received in the world’s largest democracy.

Earlier, Foreign Secretary Harshvardhan Shringla briefing media about the visit said that Tuesday’s talks lasted for five hours and touched subjects which could be placed under five categories–security and defence, energy, trade and technology, people to people contacts, and global and regional affairs.

On the trade, the two sides had very useful and comprehensive discussions and decided to finalise the trade deal as soon as possible.

He said the energy aspect of the partnership between the two countries was becoming very significant. India sourced 7 bn dollar of energy from the US in 2010 and it is going to be nine bn dollar this year. India was not only importing energy from the US but was also investing in the country in this sector.

India raised the issue of H1B visa, impressing upon the US the fact that Indian professional contribute so much to the hightech sector of the US.

Coming to global affairs, the focus was on connectivity which is part of the Indo-Pacific vision of both the countries-linking the countries through land and marine route.

The Foreign Seceretary described ”Reinforcement of the global strategic partnerhsip” as the general and major take away of Trump’s visit .

He also said that President raised the issue of religious freedom but the issue was discussed in a very positive way.However, the CAA was not raised by President Trump, Shringla said.

The Kashmir issue was also raised and India shared with the US the positive steps it had taken for the development of the state, and how it facilitated the envoys’s visit to let them see for themselves the circumstances prevailing there.

–India News Stream