NEW DELHI – President Donald Trump may count Indian Prime Minister NarendraModi among his international allies, but New Delhi is smarting overunexpected United States’ decisions it sees as ignoring the interests of anincreasingly close partner.
The Trump administration this week said it would start to sanction countrieslink that do not comply with its orders tostop buying oil from Iran, demanding that eight governments — includingIndia and China — end all imports when six-month waivers run out next week.
The move, which triggered a hike in global oil prices that coulddisproportionately hit poorer Indians, came just as Modi was campaigningfor a new mandate in ongoing, multi-phase elections.
The Iran diktat followed Trump’s announcement in March that India, alongwith Turkey, would no longer enjoy a preferential trading status for a widerange of manufactured goods.
Trump, who has rocky relations with the leaders of numerous Western allies,has publicly highlighted his bond with Modi, a Hindu nationalist who sharesthe US president’s hawkish stance on radical Islam.
India’s main opposition Congress party quickly seized on the Iran sanctionsto attack Modi. Its spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted that theIndian leader is “sitting as a mute spectator over the country’s oil needsand security”.
Trump, while popular among much of the Hindu right, has also drawnresentment in India over viral reports that he mimics Modi’s accent inprivate — a far cry from the reverential treatment US presidents since BillClinton have shown Indian leaders.’Surprised and disappointed’
An Indian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described New Delhias “surprised and disappointed” by the decision on Iran, saying the Trumpadministration had sent a message in March that India’s cuts in importswere sufficient to be granted a fresh waiver.
“We thought that, as a major defence and strategic partner, the UnitedStates would take into consideration our concerns,” the official said.
Trump is seeking to eliminate Iran’s top source of revenue in a bid to curbthe clerical regime’s regional clout, including its backing of Shiamilitants.
India is the world’s third-largest oil importer. The official said theSouth Asian nation has cut Iranian oil from 17 to five per cent of itstotal crude imports and had also ended oil purchases from Venezuela,succumbing to US pressure as Trump tries to oust leftist President NicolasMaduro.
“We did this not because we agree with the US, but because we are strategicpartners,” he said.
Similarly, the official said the Trump administration ignored a detailedproposal from New Delhi when it announced it would scrap its designation inthe Generalized System of Preferences, which grants favourable access togoods from developing countries.
India is proposing a 90-day delay in implementation as the governmentcannot make a counter-proposal under laws that forbid policy decisionsduring elections, the official said.
Another rift could come up as India — a Cold War partner of the SovietUnion turned major buyer of US defence equipment — finalises its purchaseof Russia’s advanced S-400 missile system.
Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently told AFP that India has been“heard and understood” by the United States, which imposed sanctions onChina and has warned Nato ally Turkey over buying the S-400.Years of growing ties
Few expect India and the US to drift apart significantly, let alone returnto their Cold War estrangement, with the major parties in both democraciesbroadly supporting a strong relationship.
And Trump pleased Modi in February by backing India’s air incursions intorival Pakistan, home to virulently anti-Indian militants, in response to anattack on Indian forces in divided Kashmir.
Tanvi Madan, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and director of itsIndia Project, said that this week’s sanctions decision for the UnitedStates “is about Iran, not about its approach to India”.
“But I think that India will feel once again that it will be collateraldamage,” she said.
“It reinforces the sense in India that the US isn’t factoring in Indianinterests when it comes to these decisions, yet they affect India.”
Madan added that New Delhi was less concerned about oil than withpreserving a relationship with Tehran, even while developing close tieswith Iran’s rivals Israel and Saudi Arabia.
India is hoping to keep working with Iran on its Chabahar port, throughwhich New Delhi hopes to send supplies to war-torn Afghanistan, crackingthe landlocked country’s reliance on Pakistan.
Madan said there was one wild card that could shake up US-India ties — ifChina seized on the rift and offered reconciliation with India by makingconcessions on the Asian giants’ myriad disputes.
“Will that happen? I find it hard to believe the Chinese will get around todoing it,” she said. “But the possibility exists.” -APP/AFP