Former US Charge d'Affaires to India Donald Heflin has warned that Washington's unpredictable diplomatic stance is complicating trade talks with New Delhi.
Heflin, who is now a Senior Fellow at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, maintained that the traditional norms and practices of diplomacy in Washington are "broken.
"Typically, you come into a nation like India and you say we are considering imposing tariffs on you, and this is why. Now, if you can help us solve the problem that we worry about, or provide us another solution, we are glad to discuss that. Then you hammer out the problems with middle-level professional diplomats, and then the leaders discuss," he said.
He added that "a lot of diplomats have been dismissed or resigned or retired over the last eight months, and many of those who are left have learned the lesson that you don't express an unpopular view."
Heflin detailed that political appointees have always existed in the US foreign policy establishment, but the present administration has "more political appointees and a lot of the particularly higher-level professionals" departing from the service.
What should occur routinely is a leader like Trump can just turn to the State Department and say, I want to do this, work out how to do it. Now, everyone who knows how to do that has gone or is too frightened to say anything. That's an actual problem," he said.
In spite of these obstacles, Heflin stated that he was "cautiously optimistic" regarding the recent appointment of the next US ambassador to India, Sergio Gor. "Sergio is not one of the radicals of the Trump administration. He was a voice for reasonableness in the first Trump term. He'll be okay. I think he'll be a steady hand at the wheel," he said.
Meanwhile, he cautioned that the absence of experienced staff could still impact Gor's work in India. "If you go through the depth chart of the embassy, some of the people that he would usually be able to rely upon are gone or they will be leaving soon or they are scared of speaking out. So, a lot of the instruments that he would usually have won't be available," Heflin emphasized.
When it comes to US policy changes in the Indo-Pacific, Heflin pointed out that "renegotiating economic arrangements with China is a huge priority" for the Trump administration, and as a result of which US relations with other regional nations, including India, are being impacted.
"There is an inclination to say if we could do a good deal with China, that would be wonderful. If we could draw them away from Russia today, that would be the best we could do. What about Australia, Japan and India, who sort of got in line with us? What do we do with them? That is the possibility," he said.
The erstwhile senior US diplomat also made some suggestions to India. "I think India is going to have to make a mental adjustment here. If you take a look back over the decades, the US has been a persistent suitor of India. India was always hot and cold. Well, the US is taking the same approach. I'm not sure how much India's pride will allow it to do that. But I think that's where we are now," he added.
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