What To Make Of Mike Pompeo’s India Visit
The visit comes ahead of the G-20 summit.
The U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to India comes at a time when the two countries have a number of issues to address including on trade, terror and defence. What does the visit, which comes ahead of the G-20 summit, mean for India-U.S. ties?
The visit is symbolic of the kind of importance that the U.S. attaches to India, Virendra Gupta, a former ambassador, told BloombergQuint in an interview. “I have never seen previously, a U.S. secretary of state, a very high-ranking government official, coming down to India to prepare for the bilateral meeting scheduled on the sidelines of a G-20 meet,” he said.
The very fact that Pompeo has chosen to visit India at this time, immediately on the eve of the bilateral meeting scheduled shows that America attaches importance to its relationship with India. We need America and they also need us.Virendra Gupta, Former Indian Ambassador
Pompeo, in a joint briefing with Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar, said there are issues when it comes to trade and defence with India but he was sure the relations between the two countries were reaching new heights.
India had last year signed an agreement to buy S-400 missiles from Russia despite threats of sanctions from the U.S. Jaishankar said India will do what is in its national interest. So, will India give in to pressures from the U.S. when it comes to defence and energy needs?
India is spending too much diplomatic energy on the U.S. while it gets nothing in return, said Bharat Karnad of the Centre for Policy Research. “Indian method of negotiation is all give and no take. We’re not a self-sufficient country when it comes to energy and we have surrendered all that just to please Washington,” he said.
We are subservient to all outside powers and spend so much of our political capital on these small issues for small successes. That really hurts our national interest.Bharat Karnad, Professor For National Security Studies, Centre for Policy Research
Watch the full discussion here: