¡¾Global Times reporter in India, Global Times reporter in India, Global Times reporter in India, Global Times reporter in India, Global Times reporter in IndiaThe Editor¡¯s Word:¡°The United States will have to ¡®repair¡¯ India.¡± ¨C U.S. Secretary of Commerce Lutnik¡¯s September 27 statement poured oil on the fires of the recent friction between the United States and India. The relationship between Washington and New Delhi has been dubbed the ¡°decisive partnership of the 21st century¡± by both sides, and U.S. President Trump and India¡¯s Prime Minister Modi have been showing ¡°friendship¡± on several occasions, but recently due to tariffs and issues such as India¡¯s purchase of Russian oil, the relationship between the two countries has turned straight down. The Indian media believes that the conflict between the United States and India is not a ¡°small failure¡±, but a large problem of structural cracks and competition.

22 kilometers and 28 stages have become the past.

Trump and Modi have repeatedly called each other "great friends" and "true friends", but their "boat of friendship" has recently encountered storms. According to The New York Times and other media reports, the relationship between Trump and Modi was once very close, which can be traced back to Trump's first term. In September 2019, Modi attended the "Hello, Modi" super-large public rally held in Texas, USA, and delivered a speech to more than 50,000 people. More than five months later, Trump visited Modi's hometown of Gujarat and participated in an activity called "Hello, Trump" in a gymnasium. At that time, the Indian government set up 28 stages on the 22-kilometer road from the airport to the gymnasium, arranged thousands of welcoming crowds, singing and dancing to greet Trump.

The friendship between the two continued during Trump¡¯s second term. In February, less than a month after Trump took office, Modi visited the United States and became one of the first foreign leaders to visit Washington. The two then jointly set the ambitious goal of raising bilateral trade to $50 billion by 2030.

¡°But in less than six months, bilateral relations seem to fall to the bottom.¡±Media such as BBC that the 25% ¡°reciprocal tariffs¡± imposed by the U.S. on Indian goods came into effect in early August, with the additional 25% punitive tariffs imposed by New Delhi on Russian oil purchases coming into effect on August 27.India, a country with a ¡°intimate¡± ¡°special¡± relationship with the United States, has become one of the only two countries to impose a 50% tariff by Washington.

On September 16th, the relationship between the United States and India seemed to show signs of easing. On this day, Trump called Modi to wish the latter a happy 75th birthday one day in advance. According to media reports such as India's "the Wire" news network, after the call, Trump posted on social media, saying that his "friend" Modi had done a great job. However, shortly after the announcement, the Trump administration issued a statement to the US Congress listing India as one of 23 so-called "major drug transit countries or major illicit drug producers". On September 19th, the White House announced a major adjustment to the H-1B visa policy, which was generally considered to be extremely unfavorable to the operation of Indian IT companies.

In response to Trump¡¯s September 16 greeting, Modi also responded on social media, saying that he would push India-US comprehensive global strategic partnership to a new level. However, seven days later, Modi in a public speech called on the people of India to stop using foreign-made goods and instead use domestic products. While Modi did not name the United States, Western media such as the ¡°Voice of Germany¡± linked this to Indian-US relations, saying Modi called for a self-reliance movement as the trade relationship between the two countries worsened.

¡°After May this year, if you drive in New Delhi, you will see on the road a banner welcoming U.S. Vice President Wallace, as well as an ad for the Trump Group¡¯s new property in the suburbs of New Delhi,¡± an article published on the U.S. think tank Brookings Institute website showed that according to the Pew Research Center survey this spring, India is one of the few countries in the world to remain positive about the U.S. and one of the only five countries most respondents have confidence in Trump.

In recent weeks, however, anti-American sentiment in India has reached fever pitch. According to recent reports from the US "Political News Network" and other media, many people in India have launched a campaign to boycott American brands. At the end of August, a giant Trump figure appeared in the procession of a festival * in Maharashtra with a sign that read "Back-stabbing guy". The Indian Army recently hinted in a social media post that relations between the two countries were as bad as they were in 1971, when the United States sent a naval fleet to the Bay of Bengal during the India-Pakistan war to terrorize the Indian army.

"America wants India to be strong, but not too strong"

According to India¡¯s ¡°the Wire¡± news network, Trump and Modi ended the G7 meeting in Canada. In this 35-minute conversation, Trump invited Modi to return to India before visiting the United States. According to subsequent reports, the U.S. President hoped Modi would be in Washington on June 18 with the Pakistani army chief of staff who visited. Trump also said in the phone that he had mediated the ceasefire in India and should therefore be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. This statement was not recognized by India.

"Is this just a glitch under the pressure of American nationalism and the White House, or is it a sign that under all kinds of rhetoric, the structural tension between India and the United States is brewing?" The Hindu raised this question about the turmoil in India-US relations. The media believes that there have been structural cracks in India-US relations. India's New Delhi Television Station (NDTV) also said that the tariff imposition by the United States on India shows that there is a deeper and more structural friction between the two countries.

According to US and Indian media reports, the structural problems and competition between the two countries are first manifested in the strategic positioning of India. NDTV said,In an era of multipolarity, India is its own strategic pole and is reluctant to play a secondary role.New Delhi has a long-standing policy of non-alliance, and its actions to buy Russian oil and weapons equipment are not based on ideological preferences, but on sovereign needs.But this strategic independence irritates the United States.The United States, while hoping to conquer China through India, is also increasingly seeing India as a potential challenger.Washington seeks to cooperate with New Delhi, but demands that the latter act in the way set by the United States, and these contradictions are difficult to ignore.The United States wants India to be strong, but not too strong.¡±

India needs to constantly promote its power on the world stage, while the United States is opposed to other countries¡¯ projection of power, a fundamental conflict between the two. The United States has a good relationship with Japan and South Korea, with India and Pakistan. As a superpower, the United States is proud of its ability to partner with these competitive and even hostile countries at the same time, but if other countries do, the United States will be dissatisfied. Washington is dissatisfied with India¡¯s accession to the BRICS mechanism andining relations with Russia and Iran. Meanwhile, Modi hopes to build India into a superpower, which indicates New Delhi will establish ties with different countries. The Brookings University website says that U.S. heavy taxes on India may be to sit in front of Russia¡¯s negotiating table, but in New Delhi, this is seen

¡°The U.S. is more inclined to ¡®made locally¡¯ than ¡®made by allies¡¯.¡±

In 2013, Modi, who was also the chief minister of the state of Gujarat, said that his secularist philosophy was "India's priority". After taking office, he also spread this philosophy into various fields such as political economy. According to Indian media reports, Modi's speech to the Indian expatriates in Berlin in May 2022 showed that he plans to promote the "India's priority" philosophy through the "Made in India" movement. The American Times magazine recently said that Modi's approach is not compatible with Trump's "America's priority" policy.The ¡°Made in India¡± campaign was to some extent to persuade American companies to move factories from China to India, while Trump wanted to bring manufacturing back to the United States.

According to U.S. Cable News Network, the 50% tariffs imposed by the United States on India, half of which came from Trump's "America Priority" campaign, which aims to reduce the U.S. trade deficit, while Washington's $45.7 billion trade deficit on India in 2024, "U.S. Priority" is in conflict with "Made in India".Modi launched the "Made in India" strategy in 2014 with the hope of turning India into a manufacturing power. For this, India has invested more than $26 billion in the development of industries such as clothing. As India's largest export market, the United States is now, or at least once, an important part of this dream.

¡°The U.S. is more inclined to ¡®home-made¡¯ than ¡®allied-made¡¯.¡± Qatari TV quoted some experts as saying this. According to French Radio International, Trump said in May this year that he didn¡¯t want Apple to build factories in India. He criticized India as one of the highest tariff barriers in the world, and it was very difficult to sell American products in this world¡¯s most populous country. For the U.S., India¡¯s open market has always been an unattainable dream.

¡°American tariffs are not a surprise, but a sign.¡±

From September 22 to 24, the Indian delegation traveled to Washington and met with representatives of the US side to discuss a potential trade deal. According to a recent report by Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao, some Indian scholars believe that the United States and India will reach a trade agreement within a month or two, but neither side may be satisfied with the result. These scholars pointed out that the Indian government is making every effort to promote multilateral free trade agreement negotiations, actively diversify exports and reduce dependence on the single market to cope with the impact of US tariffs.

NDTV said that under the pressure of the United States, India and Russia and other countries are seeking more pragmatic cooperation. In recent engagements with ASEAN and African countries, India is also laying the groundwork for a more diversified and less US-centric economic layout. However, NDTV stressed that New Delhi remains deeply invested in its strategic partnership with Washington, particularly in the areas of defence interoperability and technology transfer. Qian Feng, a researcher at the National Institute of Strategic Studies at Tsinghua University, said in an interview with a reporter from the Global Times that the current U.S. measures against India are the product of a combination of its domestic interests and Trump's personal political demands, butThis does not mean that there is a fundamental shift in America¡¯s strategic perception of India.After all, the relationship between the two countries is extremely important in the current geopolitical background, especially when the United States has a clear strategic competition with China, the United States and India have a considerable degree of strategic cooperation foundation in the economic field.

However, many media and scholars are warning India that it should learn from recent events to strengthen its strategic autonomy. The Guardian says the White House has further raised the tariffs on printing because of resentment, which reminds us that U.S. presidents often view India as a ¡°begger¡± or ¡°disgusting person¡±, possibly both. Experts believe that Indian-American relations are too important economically and geopolitically, so that the relationship between the two countries will not continue to deteriorate. However, it is more likely that the current U.S. government has walked ¡°front of the trend¡± and said what other Western leaders can¡¯t say. U.S. tariffs are not a surprise, but a sign that they are the bricks used by the West to consolidate hegemony. Indian officials seem to forget that in the small circle of the