New Delhi: The India-US partnership, despite its touted successes including the nuclear agreement and cooperation in critical arenas like AI and minerals, has always been vulnerable; prone to “misunderstandings, missteps, and missed opportunities because of lingering distrust and misaligned expectations”, write Kurt M. Campbell and Jake Sullivan, both part of the previous Biden administration in the US, in Foreign Affairs.
The US makes a distinction between its alliances and partnerships, and India is firmly in the latter category—which makes ruptures all the more difficult to repair, according to the article.
“The current trajectory risks a split that would be difficult to mend, to the great detriment of both countries. As (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi’s chummy appearance over the weekend with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin made clear, the United States could end up driving India directly into its adversaries’ arms,” it adds.
“India, meanwhile, could end up squeezed on all sides with an unaccommodating power in China on its border and strained technology, education, and defence ties with the United States. Given this reality, Washington and New Delhi must strive to do more than simply restore the old, suboptimal status quo,” says the article, stressing on the strategic importance of the relationship.
A vital pillar of this strategic alliance is defence cooperation—“codevelopment, co-production, joint logistics and interoperability”.
“If both sides committed to developing the necessary consultation mechanisms and technology and personnel platforms, a more durable capacity to train, exercise, and operate together is within reach,” it adds.
The article recommends that the two nations “must create a firmer and more ambitious foundation”: a strategic alliance based on mutual commitments regarding technology, defence, supply chains, intelligence, and global problem solving. “An alliance, in other words, not based on a traditional mutual defence pact,” it says.
In the wake of the India-US fallout, Washington’s “inflammatory” language toward New Delhi is only making matters worse, reports Pranshu Verma in The Washington Post, citing Peter Navarro’s remarks against India. One of US President Donald Trump’s “most trusted advisors” has been on the warpath—issuing criticism after criticism.
“A US official with knowledge of the situation, speaking to The Post on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues, said there is a recognition within the administration that Navarro’s comments are ‘unhelpful’ but that he is ‘not actually involved’ in negotiations with India,” says the report.
“The State Department has been tasked with trying to stabilise the relationship, two of the people familiar with the matter said, but the extent of its influence was unclear.”
The Guardian delves into how India’s industry is bearing the weight of 50% tariffs imposed by the US—noting that margins were “razor thin” to begin with.
“We will see tens of thousands of skilled workers displaced across the country, in Surat, Jaipur, Mumbai and beyond. And once those jobs are lost, the damage will be hard to reverse,” Adil Kotwal of Seepz Gems and Jewellery Manufacturers’ Association is quoted as saying in the report.
“Across other industries, shrimp farming alone supports more than 16 million Indians. Two-thirds of the sector’s £5.5bn in exports go to the US. A Kolkata exporter said: ‘With the tariffs, India’s shrimp will become super-expensive in the US market. We’re already facing huge competition from Ecuador, as it has only a 15% tariff’,” adds the report.
“Leather exporters, too, are bracing for tough times. The US buys a fifth of India’s leather goods, from shoes to handbags.”
The New York Times reports on the deluge of rain and cloudbursts that has left much of North India reeling. The floods have also done undue damage to crops “at a particularly inopportune moment”.
“Already weighed down by heavy debt, the farming sector has found itself at the center of a tussle in tariff negotiations between the United States and India,” the report underlines.
“In Punjab, considered the breadbasket of India, all of the state’s 23 districts have been declared flood affected. Nearly half a million acres of farmland have been submerged, according to the state government, causing severe damage to paddy, cotton, sugar cane and other crops,” it states.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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