U.S PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S VISIT TO INDIA : A BOOST FOR US-INDIA RELATIONSHIP ?

United States president Donald Trump made his first official visit to India after his acquittal in an

impeachment trial in the U.S Senate.Trump and U.S First Lady Melania Trump arrived in Ahmedabad at the newly constructed Motera/Sardar Patel stadium on February 24,for the main leg of their maiden India trip during which he held extensive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India and the US resolved to upgrade their bilateral relationship to a comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership that will include issues such as defence , security cooperation and revitalization of Indo-Pacific quadrilateral dialogue. Both sides also called upon Pakistan to rein in cross- border terror threats and sought justice for the victims of 26\11 attack and the Pathankot terror attack of 2016.President Donald Trump was delighted with the warm welcome he and his family received in India.

During the course of ‘Namaste Trump’ that he jointly addressed with PM Narendra Modi , he described the U.S’s relationship with India now as something extraordinary and said a lot of progress was made in bilateral ties during his maiden official visit to the “incredible country” where America is going to do a lot of business. After consequent talks between Mr. Trump and Mr. Modi, a number of agreements and MoUs, including on counter –terrorism, Intellectual property rights, space and medical cooperation, were exchanged. A limited trade deal that would give U.S.greater access to India’s dairy, poultry markets, and lower tariffs on other products, however, remain elusive. From resurfacing roads and planting palm trees along the streets to building a wall apparently to hide slums, the Gujarat government pulled out all the stops to impress Mr. Trump.

India and U.S concluded defence deals worth over$3 billion for 24 MH-60R Seahawk Multi –Role Helicopters for the navy and six AH-64E attack helicopters for the army on the sidelines of the discussions between Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump.This deal will provide tremendous boost to India’s military strength and these deals will enhance the joint defence capability as India-US militaries continue to train and operate together side by side. The MH-60R helicopters are a critical requirement for the Navy which has an acute shortage on its frontline warships. The Seahawk deal is worth around $2.2 billion and the six Apaches cost around $800 million. To meet the urgent requirement, six Seahawks are expected to be delivered within a year and the rest as per the agreed schedule. Observing that defence has a major role in the relationship, PM. Modi said manufacturers of the two countries are becoming part of each other’s supply chains. He concluded that “In the last few years, there has been unprecedented growth in the interoperability between our militaries”. According to the Bureau of Political-Military affairs of the U.S State Department, the defence trade has increased from near zero in 2008 to $ 15 billion in 2019. In a fact sheet of June 2019, it said since 2008, the U.S has also sold to India over $6.6 billion in defence articles through the Direct Commercial Sales process.

Energy deals were another key important part of discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S President Donald Trump, with talks over increasing India’s imports of U.S oil and

gas, a clean energy deal including an MoU on building pipeline infrastructure and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) between American oil company ExxonMobil, gas transportation technology company chart industries and PSU Indian oil corporation Limited (IOCL). However a much published agreement for Indian PSU Petronet to invest $2.5 billion in American LNG Company Tellurian will not be ready for signing. This would further enhance the ongoing strategic Energy Partnership between two countries and take it to the next level. Business leaders also said that oil and gas is gaining salience in the relationship.Mukesh Aghi , The CEO of the India US strategic Partnership Forum said that “Energy will soon take over form Defence as the strongest link in the Indo-U.S. relationship” which will boost India among top three global economies in Asia.

Commerce minister Piyush Goyal, U.S. Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross addressed several business chambers tol discuss means to boost Indian exports, the energy partnership, and defence collaborations with the U.S. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman had announced a health cess of 5% on medical devices (except those from basic custom duty) to help local manufacturers and finance health infrastructure. Currently duties on medical services are in the 0-7.5% range. Custom duties increased on a number of agricultural goods including walnuts and some dairy products like cheese and butter. The U.S. had also wanted India to remove price gaps on medical devices, and wanted a proper trade deal on dairy products and elimination of tariffs on ICT products. Current trade talks include a discussion on partial relief for the U.S. on medical device price gaps in India, partial restoration of GSP for India, and conducted discussions over agricultural products.

Apart from all these deals, U.S President has identified India along with 21 countries as among the major illicit drug producing or transit nations along with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Myanmar. Despite the efforts of Law enforcement and security forces, these countries are falling behind in the fight to eradicate illicit crops and reduce drug production. The Trump Administration is committed to address these factors fueling the drug crisis in these countries including India by expanding access to treatment and recovery programs, improving public education programs to prevent illicit drugs use mainly narcotics and by strengthening domestic drug enforcement at the borders. Mr. Trump said that his government has dedicated nearly $4 billion in additional funding to confront this national crisis. The visit provided for great optics for India when the president of the world’s largest economy paid visit and the Narendra Modi led government pulled out all stops to ensure that the visit was a grand success. After all, the PM is looking to woo Trump as he seeks the latter’s cooperation in getting India out of an economic slump. India has reportedly spent 130 crore to ensure that Trump likes what he sees in India –right from huge crowds chanting his name to building walls that concealed slums that happened to lie on his cavalcade’s route. Not surprisingly, the scale of expenditure on a36-hour state visit has drawn sharp criticisms from several quarters in what appeared to  be “all show no business” and Trump might not eventually give Modi what he wants despite the rousing welcome he received.

Amrita Chowdhury

Intern, AGA.