It is a positive sign that US President Donald Trump picked up the phone to speak to Prime Minister Narendra Modi off his own bat on Tuesday, just four days after he stepped into the White House. This signals that the new US leader thinks there is political space for the two countries to work well together. But it seems too early to speak in terms of a “special” relationship. The space that is available must be well utilised by both sides in order to work toward the objective of running a relationship of significance instead, for special ties don’t really exist in the practical world, although if relations are sound a country can hope to derive considerable political or economic advantage in a crunch situation.
The prospect improves if personal understanding happens to exist between the principals. We saw this when President George W. Bush used his political capital to help India clinch the civil nuclear agreement with the US when the deal appeared to be running against the bureaucratic wall in Washington D.C. Mr Modi was among the first leaders to phone Mr Trump to congratulate him when he won. The latter’s call to the PM seems at this stage more in the nature of returning the compliment early enough to be noted. Since the White House spokesman publicly announced the call, it appears the President is signalling India to get going on starting a dialogue with his administration on consequential issues.
The US leader spoke to Mr Modi very early — right after he had spoken to the leaders of neighbouring Canada and Mexico and Israel (which all US leaders court, cutting across party lines) and Egypt, and before he contacted Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo or any European capital. This has set off some excitement here, but let us not read too deeply into this.
The relationships with all those capitals are complex and delicate and the new US administration may need a little more time to put its thoughts together before engaging on those fronts.
It will be useful if South Block uses the early phone call from the White House to get started quickly. The H1-B visa issue is important on the trade side and will naturally be high on the agenda. But regional politics is crucial for us too as this involves moves by China and Pakistan (often in tandem) on matters relating to security and terrorism, and the nature of our position in Afghanistan, Iran and the Indian Ocean.
The nature of the relationship of the Trump administration with Moscow, if it is non-antagonistic, should offer us greater operating space in the Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan context. But a conversation embracing all of this should begin from our side soon.
