Charting the Critical Vistas

It’s not a flight of fancy for both nations as leaders of the world’s two largest democracies are all set to blaze a new trail of glory in international diplomacy

The visit of US President Donald Trump to India assumes a special significance as it does not seek to initiate a re-ordering principle in the franchise of global politics and international relations. The American President is known amongst all nations and regions as the most powerful personage in the world. As an added context, the President’s visit to India with a three hour interlude in the State of Gujarat also serves as a subject for interest and analysis. As an instance, the American national interest may be served by Donald Trump’s visit to New Delhi as both nations are striving hard for a new-found “Allyhood”.

It was President Donald Trump who, in the run up to the National Security Strategy Document in 2017, declared that India needs to assume novae roles in the international politics going by its rising pelf, geo economic influence and strategic might. This gels well with the Bharat’s avowed principle of being a “Vishwaguru” which India adheres to as a functional aspect of its foreign policy, though the dictum needs much more of an elaboration in the light of the ebb and flow of the tide of International relations. Perceived in an interesting and illuminating light, the entire nation looks forward to the upcoming visit of President Donald Trump to New Delhi. As it was made amply clear that the President survived a disastrous impeachment proceedings which was effectively put down by the Republican numbers in the American Senate, a little moral support emanating from Bharat would do a world of good, though the American President by no stretch of imagination is a weak presumptive candidate in the upcoming hustings in the United States of America.

It need not be re-emphasised that in the context of the Chinese rise, which, at the end of the day, might not be peaceful in very simplistic terms, the containment of the Chinese Dragon remains an under arm agenda of Washington and no other nation as India is much affected by the “Hide your powers, bide your time” strategy of the People’s Republic of China. The present visit of President Donald Trump assumes novae relevance as both the nations are at an interesting cusp of rejuvenation as a new found energy in their leadership stands to position both the liberal Democracies on a critical edge from where anointment will be the futuristic order of the day. It’s not a flight of fancy for both the nations as the two towering leaders are all set to blaze a new trail of glory for both the largest and the oldest Democracies of the World.

In a miasmically – morphing international politics, Bharat and the United States are all set to further embolden their embrace as President Trump too benefited by the ‘Howdy Modi’ event in Houston, Texas where PM Modi ascertained the support of the Indian Diaspora for Donald Trump’s second run for Presidency. The US President’s visit is a prolongation of the same exercise in summitry between the two nations as the nationalistic movements around the nook and cranny of the global regimes are very pointedly perched upon the strong shoulders of both these nations ascertaining a heady run for both New Delhi and Washington as a consequence of the visit.

Trade issues might be up for deliberations, realistically speaking and in a much more grounded ardour, the Indian side of the fence will attempt to evade the gathering clouds of a trade war, though unrealistically much ado has been made in the national press about the trade war between India and the United States. Differences exist in the Nuclear Liability bill, investment strategies and intellectual property rights, which need to be deliberated upon in the light of the visit American President. Thus, as an ameliorative exercise, the Presidential visit can serve as a significant pointer to the future course of “Bilaterals” for both the subset of the twin grandiloquent nations. The American President reinvigorated with his triumph at the US Senate might reiterate the much needed Indian strategic footprints in the extended neighbourhoods of Afghanistan, West Asia and Indo Pacific, just to complete a round up of the world.

The Indian refrain from launching forth much more purposefully in the extended neighbourhood and the aggrandizement of its influence as a resolver of conflict scenarios can serve as a guide for what President Donald Trump might contend with before Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On a lighter note, both New Delhi and Washington might rake up the theme of an amalgamation of interests and show biz between Hollywood and a boisterous Bollywood. Both the heads of State need to deliberate upon the miasma of conspiracy theories as the allegations of both the Premiers constructing war and selling their national objectives through them, run amuck but deserve no special attention. The energy confabulations between both the nations were dominated by energy deals being inked by both the nations at Houston where in Indian firms too staked a concern in the rigmarole of American corporate Energy holdings.

Other attendant themes of the order of US assuming an ambiguous stance on Kashmir, too can be attempted to be ironed out by Prime Minister Modi along with waging an even enlarged battle Royale against the global war on terror.

De-hyphenation in South Asia can be another old concern which can be revisited by New Delhi’s diplomatic denomination. Special waivers can also be demanded for New Delhi and its crucial ‘tete-a-tete’ with Tehran in the light of the ‘Great Satan’ diatribe once again gaining currency in the West Asian milieu.

President Donald Trump might be cajoled into easing the visa restrictions for the Indian expatriates which nowhere does militate against the “Immigration Mexican Wall” doctrine of the White House denomination. These are a few and easy-to-be-deciphered takeaways of a prognosticated, but crucial Summitry between Raisina Hill and the White House in the context of the impending Presidential visit to New Delhi. Though business ethics and transactional themes of commerce run the show, but a blatant identification with only the economics of the bilateral relationship might mar the optics of the “Bilaterals” between both the nations.

All in all and in toto, the negotiators from India and the United States are engaged fervently to reach a micro trade deal before President Trump lands in Delhi. If a well nuanced Trade and Investment quod pro quo is not arrived at by the twin interlocutors, then a fledgling trade alliance is on the cards as a prologue to the President’s jaunt to New Delhi. Such a biz takeway will be the cognizant quid pro quo in the commercial tryst with each other. Also, despite the divergences in the context of Aluminum trade and the retaliatory Generalised Preferences of Trade, both the heads of State are well-berthed to negotiate hard for trade deal in line with the characteristics of shared values and democratisation and attendant principles of a free-wheeling trade environment and US would do well to heed the concerns of Prime Minister Modi.