‘Musk picked wrong time to lecture Indians…’: Fareed Zakaria says countries no longer trust the US

Elon Musk, who desperately wants to launch his satellite service Starlink in India, picked the wrong time to lecture Indians, said veteran journalist and geostrategist Fareed Zakaria. The entire exercise backfired because countries no longer trust the US, thanks to their aggressive rollback of promises that has burnt every goodwill there was with other nations.

“Elon Musk picked the wrong moment to lecture Indians. Frustrated that Starlink had not been cleared to launch in that country, he accused the government of protecting Mukesh Ambani, whose telecom network, Jio, will launch its own satellite service,” said Zakaria on his CNN show, GPS. He said Musk cast himself as the champion of ordinary Indians against one of the country's richest men, and it backfired. While the Indian government dismissed his accusation as baseless, media and online reactions were similarly hostile to Starlink.

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“Musk did not understand that in India, as in much of the world, trust in America is collapsing. Indians have watched, as Donald Trump has discarded 25 years of bipartisan outreach to New Delhi, in favor of cozing up to Pakistan, and its de facto dictator,” he said, referring to Field Marshal Asim Munir.

Zakaria cited Trump’s abandonment of Ukraine as his administration restricted the usage of Starlink’s military version, which crippled their response to Russian aggression.

He asked why would India want to depend on a US satellite system that’s controlled by Trump and Musk.

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Zakaria explained that right after World War II, the US pulled off a geopolitical miracle, by aligning with Japan and Germany to defend them. He called it a strange arrangement, that two top economies should bank on the US for protection.

“They did so not because America was invariably wise or generous, but because the entire international system thus created benefited the US too. American power was formidable, but American trust was priceless. That trust is disappearing,” he said.

He cited a PEW survey that showed that 26 of the 35 countries viewed China more favourably than the US. Zakaria spoke of Canada that is looking to rebuild its ties with China while attempting to distance itself from the US. Then there’s Saudi Arabia, UAE, and other American partners that have suffered Iranian attacks in a war initiated by the US itself. Despite his commitment, Trump has not helped Saudi Arabia or Qatar. Some allies, he said, have begun asking if ties with America are actually keeping them safer or pushing them towards danger.

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In countries like South Korea and Japan, the share of people who have favourable views of the US have fallen. “These societies still fear China and North Korea, and still depend on the US. That is precisely the point. They need Washington but no longer know whether they can trust it,” he said.

Then there is Europe. Zakaria pointed out that Trump has repeatedly questioned whether he would defend his NATO allies. “Trump's defenders say he is simply forcing wealthy allies to pay for their own defence. Something previous presidents also demanded. Fair enough. But there is an enormous difference between asking your allies to shoulder more responsibility and telling them that your promise to defend them might be worthless,” he said.

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Zakaria said the US’ nuclear umbrella spared certain countries like Germany, Japan and South Korea the need to develop their own bombs. “That restraint is already weakening,” he said.

“Donald Trump believes he is making his allies pay their own bill, he may end up making them build their own bombs,” said Zakaria.