The Donald Trump administration is placing highest priority on relations with India and understands that the nation has the ability to transform the Indo-Pacific region and is a significant partner in terms of competing with China, a former White House official has stated.
The remarks were made by Lisa Curtis on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the White House for a bilateral meeting with President Trump on Thursday.
She has worked in President Donald Trump's first term as senior director for South and Central Asia at the National Security Council from 2017 to 2021.
Speaking at an online press conference on Tuesday by Washington DC-based think tank The Centre for a New American Security (CNAS) on the eve of Modi's visit, Curtis stated,"Clearly, the Trump administration is giving top priority to relations with India."
"They realize that India is a big upcoming global power and actually has the potential to transform the Indo-Pacific region and the world," Curtis, Senior Fellow and Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Programme at the think tank, stated.
Modi will be the fourth foreign leader to meet Trump in the days after the American leader's inauguration as the 47th President of the US.
Within less than a month of the beginning of Trump's second term in the White House, he has hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Jordan's King Abdullah II.
Curtis further stated that it is actually extraordinary that India is being accorded so much attention with so much that is happening domestically here under the new Trump administration.
And the Indian government has done its homework too, of course, and has already made positive moves to make a tone, a good tone for Thursday's meeting, she said.
She further said that the Quad is something very near and dear to the heart of the Trump administration.
"We've already had a meeting of the Quad foreign ministers, literally on the first day of the Trump administration. So that gives you a sense of the priority that the Trump administration puts on India and its role in the Quad," she said.
On January 21, a day after Trump's inauguration, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had a bilateral and Quad meeting.
Rubio met Jaishankar as well as other foreign ministers of the Quad group Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Japanese Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi at the State Department on January 21, the first Quad ministerial meeting of the Trump administration's second term.
"So that's something that brings them together, the idea of the US and India working together to keep a free and open Indo-Pacific, to make sure other countries have options other than China, to reduce dependencies on China, to diversify supply chains. All of this is important to both countries, and this is where their interests converge. So I expect that will be some of the glue that brings the US and India together despite this trade tension, she said.
With the Trump-Modi meeting coming in the wake of the Trump administration's announcments and emphasis on trade and tariffs, Curtis said it will be important for the two leaders to try and come to a trade deal.
"But if you look at the first Trump administration, they never did sign a trade deal despite a great effort. But nevertheless, the trade tension did not overwhelm the overall strategic partnership. And by the time Trump left, I think he had put the US-India relationship in a very good position," she added.
Curtis, however, said this time around we will witness less tolerance from President Trump on the trade issues, the expectations will be higher of India to make concessions to bring down tariffs. And so we've yet to see if India can do that.
"And I think you know that means that the trade issue may be more of an irritant this time around than it was in the first Trump administration.
Responding to a question if Trump is trying to get India closer to the US to counter China's increasing influence in the Indo-Pacific, Curtis said though much of the discussion will be on the bilateral relationship, trade, immigration, defence buys, the China thread will run through the meeting.
"This is an underpinning theme to this meeting, she said adding that "Trump's advisors are very clear that India is an important partner when it comes to competing effectively with China and pushing back against Chinese aggression.
"So I think that will be an underlying theme.We'll have to see what the joint statement says. It's unlikely to name China specifically, but that will be the underlying theme of their strategic cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, whether it is on technology, maritime security issues or defence relationships.".
"The US-India relationship, on defence, is extremely significant to India in relation to countering the threat posed by China on their border that is disputed. And we witnessed that in 2020 when you had a border crisis India-China, and the US greatly enhanced its intelligence assistance, offered military gear and offered plenty of diplomatic assistance to India during that crisis phase, she said.
Prior to the visit, Head - Americas, VFS Global Amit Kumar Sharma stated that the US-India relationship is poised for unprecedented growth, with rising travel anticipated on business, trade, leisure, and spiritual fronts.
"Companies are keen to collaborate, sustained by a shared aspiration for sustainable growth. This is the result of sustained, strategic engagement at the highest government and industry levels, he further added.
He further stated that Modi's visit is a "highly anticipated milestone in these collective efforts by businesses, organizations, and governments alike. In the future, we can look forward to an even more dynamic US-India corridor in 2025 and beyond.".
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