During the tenure of Obama, India and the USA were inching forward towards a strategic relationship. Narendra Modi the Indian prime minister also had a good rapport with President Obama. The advent of PresidentTrump has changed this cozy relationship. The strategic dialogue between India and the USA which was earlier scheduled to be held in March was deferred to July, has now has been further postponed due to "unavoidable reasons." The Economic Times has reported that the dialogue was scheduled for July 6 and the Indian Defense Minister, Nirmala Sitharamiah, and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj were supposed to proceed to Washington for a meeting with the Secretary of State Mike Pompei, and Secretary of Defense, General Mattis.
Trump and India
The reason for this postponement probably means that Trump no longer considers India of significance in his plans. The president has a liking for strong men and thus has met Chairman Kim and is planning a summit with the Russian President Vladimir Putin. In addition, the US and Trump are not happy that India is going ahead to buy the Russian S-400 missile system and import of oil from Iran. The Hindustan Times has reported that with regard to oil imports by India from Iran, "waivers" like in the past will not be given and India must reduce oil imports from Iran to "zero" by "November 4" this year.
Relationship between the two countries
The relationship between the two countries is becoming frosty.
India is the second largest importer of crude oil from Iran and India would not like to antagonize Iran by reducing oil imports to zero. The Hindustan Times has quoted the Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, as saying" India follows only UN sanctions and not unilateral sanctions by any country.” Such statements are perhaps not to the liking of Trump.
This is one of the reasons that India does not feature on Trump's radar. It is becoming increasingly clear that Trump means business and no waiver will be given to India.
Trump is a man with a deep conviction in his own judgment. He brought North Korea to the negotiating table after he tightened the economic sanctions on Kim.
He has now decided to apply punitive sanctions on Iran and there is no way he will condone any breach in his plan to put pressure on Iran.
Last word
The dialogue between the two top India ministers and US counterparts was supposed to raise the level of the strategic relationship between the two countries. This will now be put on the backburner as Trump, with his own vision of his position in the world, charts a path that is entirely different from his predecessors.
