President Donald Trump is expected to discuss a range of issues – from trade and investment to Kashmir and citizenship amendment act – during his meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his first visit to India, beginning Monday.
According to a senior U.S. Administration official, Trump is expected to bring up the Kashmir issue and call for India and Pakistan to resolve their differences through dialogue.
“We continue to believe a core foundation of any successful dialogue between the two is based on continued momentum in Pakistan’s efforts to crack down on terrorist extremists on its territory. We continue to look for that.
“I think the President will urge both countries to seek to maintain peace and stability along the line of control (in Kashmir) and refrain from actions or statements that could increase tensions in the region,” the official said in a conference call, according to a report in The Hindu newspaper.
It’s not clear whether President Trump will speak on Kashmir and Pakistan-India tensions publicly or backstage but over the last six months, the U.S. president has publicly offered to mediate on the thorny issues – which lies at the heart of South Asian tensions.
The tensions between nuclear-armed neighbors Pakistan and India soared in August 2019 when Prime Minister Modi’s BJP Government changed the autonomous status of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region under its control.
Pakistan controls parts of the Himalayan territory, which the United Nations, as acknowledged by Secretary General Antonio Guterres during this week’s visit to Pakistan, remains a dispute on the UN agenda.
An unprecedented suspension of communication links including phones and the Internet in Kashmir since August 5 military clampdown cut off the region from the rest of the world, and led to widespread condemnation of the violation of human rights.
In Washington, the State Department has called for release of Kashmiri prisoners and restoration of fundamental freedoms of expression.
The U.S. desire to see a calm down Pakistan-India tensions partly stems from the Trump Administration’s policy toward the broader region, particularly Washington’s ongoing effort to bring about a modicum of stability to Afghanistan, where a reduction in violence agreement went into effect this weekend and is likely to lead a peace deal with the Taliban.
The Trump Administration has acknowledged Islamabad’s support for progress toward a peace deal as Pakistan has urged the Afghan Taliban to enter into talks and work out a peace deal since President Trump’s formally requested Prime Minister Imran Khan for such a role more than a year ago.
A successful peace deal in Afghanistan will pave the way for President to withdraw U.S. troops and ultimately end the longest running American conflict. The success on the Afghan front will help President Trump fulfill his political promise and come as a big foreign policy achievement in the election year.
Students paint portraits of U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania, to welcome the couple ahead of their first official visit to India. The president and first lady depart Washington Sunday.
(AFP) pic.twitter.com/IESaYiscMZ
— The Voice of America (@VOANews) February 21, 2020
Trump’s next week visit has enthused Indians as Modi seeks to improve his standing with the visit, which follows on his last year’s trip to the United States when Modi and Trump appeared jointly at Howdy Modi event Houston.
The U.S.-India relationship has expanded rapidly over the last two decades since President Bill Clinton made a trip to India in March 2000.
Since the start of the century, the U.S. has followed a policy of close bilateral engagement with India on regional and international issues and President Trump is the fourth successive White House incumbent to visit New Delhi for talks on further broadening and deepening the relationship. Defense and trade cooperation are key components of the relationship.
Besides highlighting the massive investment and commercial scope, India is marketing Trump’s visit an opportunity to expand ties between the world’s oldest and the largest democracies.
During his visit, which includes a joint Trump-Modi appearance at a mega “Namaste Trump” event, and showcase the potential for trade and defense ties between the two countries, the U.S. president will also urge respect for religious freedom.
He is expected to raise Washington’s concerns about implications of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) – which seeks to deny citizenship to Muslims from regional countries – and National Register of Citizens (NRC), which are both seen as discriminatory toward Muslims.
“Prime Minister Modi in his first speech after winning the election last year, talked about how he would prioritize being inclusive of Indian religious minorities. And certainly the world looks to India to maintain religious liberty and equal treatment for all under the rule of law,” the official said, according to the report.
Meanwhile, Trump’s 36-hour trip to India is not likely to yield the trade deal the two countries had hoped for previously.
“I’m really saving the big deal for later on,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.
“I don’t know if it’ll be done before the election, but we’ll have a very big deal with India.”
India is protective of its agriculture sector and several other contentious issues also remain unresolved. According to Voice of America, medical devices also remain an unresolved issue as part of the larger trade deal.
“Whether or not there will be an announcement on a trade package is, really, wholly dependent upon what the Indians are prepared to do,” a senior administration official told reporters Friday, according to a VOA report.
“That said, we have a number of significant commercial deals, which are of great significance that we’re very pleased to announce in a number of key sectors.”
