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US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the ‘Namaste Trump’ event in Ahmedabad on Monday. Photo: Reuters

Trump set to talk Indo-Pacific and 5G, a day after Modi’s grand welcome

  • Discussion of India’s 5G infrastructure plans may include the role of Chinese telecom giant Huawei
  • Trump’s visit, during his election year, is also likely an appeal to Indian-American voters, many of whom come from the western state of Gujarat
Donald Trump
After a day of pomp and grandeur, which saw US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi exchanging an embrace and praising each other at a stadium with some 125,000 fans, issues of geopolitics are expected to be high on the agenda when both meet on Tuesday morning.
Ajit Pai, the US Federal Communications commission chief who is accompanying Trump, has made it clear he will be discussing the issue of 5G infrastructure and, potentially, the role of the Chinese telecom giant Huawei in setting up India’s 5G systems.

Military cooperation will likely also be discussed, as the US moves to boost its Indo-Pacific strategy to contain Chinese influence in the region.

But little of that mattered on Monday as the US leader landed to great fanfare in Ahmedabad, western India.

People line the street and wave flags as the motorcade for US President Donald Trump heads to a ‘Namaste Trump’ event in Ahmedabad on Monday. Photo: AP

The South Asian nation went to great lengths to roll out the red carpet for Trump – it hurried to get a cricket stadium, touted to be the world’s largest, ready in time so that he could address 125,000 people from it.

Walls were built along areas where residents stayed in slums, and thousands of people, including artists, dancers, schoolchildren, thronged the streets of Ahmedabad to welcome Trump.

The US president, seemingly impressed by the plans, even mentioned to US media last week that he was excited at the thought of addressing people in the “largest stadium in the world”.

When they finally met at the “Namaste Trump” event in the revamped Motera stadium event on Monday, Modi and Trump embraced and exchanged compliments.

Calling his American counterpart “a [personal] friend, and India’s friend”, Modi complimented Trump for working hard to “make the American dream” come true, while saying the visit showed his respect for the Indian-American community. In return, Trump hailed key Modi government programmes in building infrastructure, sanitation and energy, and said that “everybody loves Modi”.

After the hour-long event, the entourage had another set of photo ops as they flew to Agra and visited the iconic Taj Mahal.

India pours on pageantry with raucous welcome for Trump

Trump’s schedule for the 36-hour trip, which includes just a single one-on-one meeting with Modi, seemed to indicate the trip represented little more than optics.

When Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India last October for an informal summit, Modi and Xi spent over seven hours in each other’s company, much of it in one-on-one meetings.

Modi and Trump’s limited bilateral interactions come as the two powers continue to share a frosty trade relationship, with agreements in crucial areas of energy, defence and telecom at a standstill. A major trade deal, in negotiation for a while now, is unlikely to be reached during this visit, which will mean trade disagreements and tariff wars between the two will continue to fester.

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What, then, explains the show of pomp and grandeur put up by India for Trump?

Domestic considerations for Trump – in his election year, with an eye on the nearly four million-strong and wealthy Indian American community – along with Modi’s need to gain global acceptance in the face of his government’s increasingly hardline stance on domestic issues, were likely to have been factored into the trip.

The decision to host Trump in the western Indian state of Gujarat was likely to be strategic. Trump, in his speech on Monday afternoon, highlighted that one in every four Indian-Americans hailed from Gujarat.

From left: US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, Ivanka Trump, and White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner at the ‘Namaste Trump’ event in Ahmedabad. Photo: AP

“Of course, India recognises that the US is a superpower and must pull all stops in having such a reception for its leader,” said academic Geeta Kochhar.

“Modi, too, has his own considerations: from trade and economy, to the need for him to reiterate India’s image as a vibrant democracy in the face of increasing criticism,” said Kochhar, assistant professor of Chinese studies at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.

But Kochhar believed a key part of the talks on Tuesday would revolve around the China factor.

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She pointed to the increased defence cooperation between India and the US, as well as the civil nuclear agreement between the two, along with the focus on the Indo-Pacific strategy.

“And yet, not many in China are worried over the growing intimacy between India and the United States,” Kochhar said. “There is a belief in China that the ties between India and the US have their limits and will not be able to counteract its influence beyond a point – from the trade disputes to differing priorities of the two nations.”

During the Ahmedabad reception, Trump made a much-anticipated announcement of US$3 billion worth of defence deals with India, which includes the sale of 24 MH-60R Seahawk helicopters for India’s Navy. Trump also said the two sides were looking to seal a trade deal soon, but did not offer a time frame, a sign that it was unlikely to be signed in this trip.

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According to former Indian ambassador Wadhwa, other issues that could come up included the Taliban peace deal and an energy agreement on American companies’ investment to set up nuclear reactors in south India.

“The two sides will be looking to take forward talks on two key aspects – the Indo-Pacific strategy and the Taliban Peace deal, and what the US envisages India’s role to be in the region,” he said.

Wadhwa said the optics were likely to give a boost to both leaders. “It is a good way for both leaders to project themselves,” he said.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Trump gets red-carpet treatment in India
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