Narendra Modi & Trump: Friends With Benefits

Beyond the Optics, the Modi-trump Meeting Was an Exercise in Diplomatic Give and Take. Now, They Have to Deliver on Their Promises

- Raj Chengappa

In diplomacy, when heads of state meet, personal chemistry is a key determinant of outcomes. Bad vibes was one of the major reasons why Prime Minister Indira Gandhi never got along with US President Richard Nixon. In a conversation with his secretary of state Henry Kissinger in 1971 (which was declassified recently), Nixon referred to Indira derogatorily as a “bitch” and an “old witch”.

In contrast, years later, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W. Bush, despite differences in age and interests, got on famously and even signed the path-breaking Indo-US nuclear deal. The reticent Manmohan surprised Bush by telling him, “The people of India deeply love you.” More recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi prided himself on being on first name basis with President Barack Obama and said, “Barack and I have developed a bond, a friendship.”

Before Modi’s first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump on June 26, however, it was the US president who was mouthing the adjectives, tweeting that he considered the prime minister “a true friend”. The Indian team, though, was not willing to take such praise at face value. They knew that apart from the two leaders building the right chemistry, given Trump’s mercantilist approach, they had to figure out the mathematics in the relations that would interest him. They also took into account biology—the fact that the first family, particularly Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, were among his key advisers. Meanwhile, Modi had told his aides that, having spoken to Trump on three occasions over the phone, he had built a rapport with him and was confident of doing business with him. But it was important that in Modi’s first meeting with Trump, he hit it off well with the mercurial US president and put the relations on a more favourable and firm track.