'Calls India indispensable, but...': Geostrategist on US' 'particularly erratic' policy towards India

Geostrategist Brahma Chellaney has said that the US itself is responsible for pushing India away and nearer to its strategic adversaries such as Russia. The take came days after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited New Delhi for the 23rd India-Russia Summit and held extensive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

But why is that the case? In a recent column for Project Syndicate, Chellaney explains that America's policy towards India reeks of hypocrisy. "The US calls India indispensable, but treats its interests as peripheral. It wants India to serve as a pillar of America's Indo-Pacific strategy, but adopts policies that directly undercut India's economic strength, regional security, and strategic autonomy."

The geostrategist said that this results in India becoming "increasingly embittered and mistrustful" of the US and is left with no choice but to hedge its bets by bolstering self-reliance and strengthening its ties with partners such as Russia. 

To substantiate his point further, he said that the Trump administration levied an extra 25 per cent tariff on India, raising total tariffs to 50 per cent and also threatened secondary sanctions as the US claimed that New Delhi was undermining its attempts to counter Russia's war on Ukraine. 

He further said: "Yet Trump spared other major importers of Russian energy and even granted a sanctions exemption to Hungary, whose autocratic prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is a close Trump ally. US tariffs on Indian goods now exceed those applied to Chinese exports. This is nothing short of a US economic war on India."

Furthermore, he said that Putin's visit to India should serve as a wake-up call for the US, adding, "coercion and inconsistency are a sure path to estrangement." He added that one of the US's means to balance China's aggressive rise is its flexible, interest-driven "soft alliance" with India.

He had a word of advice for the policymakers in the US vis-à-vis dealing with India. "In this sense, the US needs India more than India needs the US. Instead of trying to force India to 'fall in line,' the US must rebuild the relationship by treating India as an equal partner. This means engaging with India as it is, not as American policymakers want it to be."