The Times of India: Warm Words for Modi in Washington

Foreign leaders are discovering that they avoid criticism from the US president by praising Donald Trump and avoiding serious debate on topics of disagreement like climate change. A meeting with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the latest US “transactional approach to foreign policy,” explains Nayan Chanda, founding editor of YaleGlobal Online in his column for the Times of India. “Trump never mentioned strategic relationships.” Instead, there was a laundry list of thanks to India for a defense-equipment purchase, an order for 40 Boeing aircraft, an Infosys proposal to create 10,000 jobs in Indiana, and other plans to purchase natural gas and nuclear power equipment. “[J]oint statements left no doubt that both countries worry about China’s expanding claims and control in South China Sea,” Chanda notes. “At US insistence, India wrote a strong paragraph condemning North Korea to be on the same page with the Americans.” Trump urged Modi to reduce trade barriers for US firms along with trade deficits, and earlier he had also chastised the country falsely for accepting aid to combat climate change. Ties formed with this administration, many shallow, may not last long, Chanda warns. Trump, in office for less than six months, has shown a knack for capriciousness and unpredictability. – YaleGlobal