A strong conviction and intent on the part of both the Indian and US about maintaining a productive relationship will survive any change in leadership, according to Ashley J. Tellis, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International peace and former advisor to the US Department of State. He expressed concern, however, at the growing rhetoric against the existing system of global trade and how that could affect international relations, particularly during the current US election cycle. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, in particular, has called for the US to withdraw from free trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which involves India. He was speaking at an event in the US Consulate in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Mr. Tellis said that there is growing domestic unrest in the US over free trade deals because the benefits of globalisation have not been spread equally, with losers on both sides of the American political spectrum, which could lead to either the a change in the US’s approach to trade or a retrenchment of its commitment to global trade. In the latter case, Mr. Tellis said, if the US weakens its commitment to global trading system it “risks the prosperity of the US and is also a risk to key partnerships with other countries.” He acknowledged however, that the last word on the matter has not yet been written.
On relations between India and the US, Mr. Tellis stressed that they were in an extraordinarily strong place, with multilevel cooperation across sectors, including diplomacy, defence, energy, science and technology and intelligence sharing. While the relationship is not entirely trouble-free, he said, there is confidence on each side that such problems as may crop up could be overcome without rancour and without getting in the way of a broadly productive relationship. “Under Prime Minister Modi, the relationship has also gone beyond a convergence and affirmation of principle to actually working in reality and doing things together,” he said. Mr. Tellis said that while the good relations between the two countries is a tribute to the work of individuals there were also structural factors that have brought the two countries closer and it is in the national interests of both countries to maintain those ties.
