NEW YORK ( WNAM MONITORING): : Spurned by China and the United Sates, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed in a phone call with his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a broad range of topics that included U.S. tariffs on goods from both countries, according to media reports.
Modi’s predicament was highlight by The New York Times which said in a dispatch from New Delhi that his efforts to engage with the US and China have reached a stalemate, exposing limitations to India’s powers on the global stage.
Headlined ‘India’s Modi Left Soul-Searching After Failed Courtships of Xi and Trump’, the dispatch said that Modi’s first attempt came in 2014 at a high-level engagement with China when he rolled out the red carpet for the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, in his home town, organizing a riverside dinner, hoping for economic cooperation with India’s giant neighbour.
However, the talks were overshadowed by a stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops along their shared border. “The flare-up in 2014″, the Times said, left “Mr. Modi embarrassed, his economy squeezed by the need to keep tens of thousands of Indian troops on a war footing high in the Himalayas for several years.”
“Years later,” according to the Times, “India’s strongman warmed up to the United States, putting even more of his political credit on the line to rapidly transform a relationship that had been only slowly shedding its Cold War-era frost.
“Mr. Modi developed such a bonhomie with President Trump in his first term that he broke with protocol to campaign for a second term for him at a stadium-packed event in Houston. Mr. Modi’s confidence in India’s increasing alignment with the United States grew after the Biden administration looked past that partisan play to continue expanding relations with India, a bulwark against China.”
Indeed, during a joint session of Congress last year, Modi quipped, “A.I. stands for ‘America and India’”.
But India’s relations with the US have seems to have faltered during Trump’s second term. Terming the recent trade tensions a “very public humiliation” of Modi, the Times said that India was singled out for a whopping 50 per cent tariff, with the US citing India’s continued imports of Russian oil and calling India’s economy “dead”.
Trump also “stirred rancour among Indians” by giving Pakistan’s leadership an “equal footing” as he tried to settle the military conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, it said.
“All that has plunged India into a moment of soul-searching, exposing limitations to its power on the world stage despite its gargantuan size and growing economy.” the Times said, noting that Modi acknowledged this week that he might pay a personal political price for the trade dispute.
Noting increased activity toward warming ties with Beijing again, the dispatch said, “But relations remain strained by the border skirmish, as well as China’s support recently of Pakistan in its military escalation with India. China, for its part, has been wary of New Delhi’s efforts to create a manufacturing alternative to China.
“Mr. Modi has also been working the phone,” the dispatch said, pointing out he spoke with President Vladimir Putin of Russia and that both sides vowed to deepen “the India-Russia Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership,” it said.
“Russia’s steadfastness as a partner is being talked up by officials in India. Mr. Modi’s national security adviser was in Moscow this week to finalize details of a trip by Mr. Putin to New Delhi.”
The Times observed, “Stuck between two superpowers that have shown no hesitation to put India down in moments of friction, there is a growing sense among Indian officials and experts that the country will have to firmly return to its long-tested doctrine of ‘strategic autonomy.’
“In plain speak, that means India is on its own and should make do with a patchwork of contradictory and piecemeal ties, and avoid overcommitting to alliances.”
