US risks alienating India with public pressure, warns expert (IANS Exclusive)

Washington, Sep 6 (IANS) Bonnie Glaser, the Managing Director of the Indo-Pacific Programme at German Marshall Fund, a think-tank, has warned that the current US strategy of "publicly delivering instructions to India" about its foreign policy choices is unlikely to "deliver the desired results".

In an exclusive interview with IANS on Friday in Washington, Glaser said that the Trump administration appears to believe that India needs the US more than Washington needs New Delhi.

"The Trump administration appears to think that India will prioritise its relationship with the United States because it needs the US more than the US needs India."

Responding to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's statements on Friday, where he appeared to set preconditions including demanding India "stop being a part of BRICS", Glaser said while "some officials in the Trump administration think strategically, I doubt that Lutnick is one of them".

"Many senior American officials who have worked assiduously over the past two decades to strengthen US-India ties are astonished and saddened by the decline in the bilateral relationship in just a few months," she added.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump posted a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that India and Russia seem to have been "lost" to China.

"Looks like we've lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Glaser emphasised that Trump uses social media to "shape the behaviour of foreign leaders and other individuals" but in this case, the tactic would likely be ineffective.

"In this latest post, he may think that by highlighting how close PM Modi and Putin have aligned themselves with President Xi Jinping, those leaders will feel uncomfortable and adjust their policies. I doubt it will be very effective," she added.

As relations with the US sour, Glaser noted that India will "likely continue to strengthen ties in some areas with Europe, Japan, South Korea and other US allies".

For the US, she believed that Washington "will fail" if it seeks to counter China by itself.

"Trump isn't a strategist, and he is focused on making America great again, which from his perspective, does not require strengthening alignment and cooperation with partners and allies on China and other issues. In my view, the US will fail if it seeks to counter the multitude of challenges that China poses by itself," she added.

Going forward, Glaser cautioned that a phone call between PM Modi and Trump could be risky and the two sides should rather look for a "cooling-off period".

"A cooling-off period might be a good idea. Unless our leaders are persuaded that further deterioration of bilateral ties is costly to their national security, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to stabilise the relationship," she advised.

--IANS

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