India evaluates its ties with a post-Trump US

India and the US share wariness of an emerging China, on India’s northern border and threatening to overpower numerous states in the Indo-Pacific region where the US is focusing its own military and political resources

- Tracy Wilkinson

Eric Garcetti is not exactly a household name in India.

The Los Angeles mayor whom President Joe Biden nominated to be his ambassador to New Delhi has raised questions for some Indians about whether US-Indian ties might change after the Trump-era favored-nation status. Administration officials insist India remains a priority and a vital partner.

But few things can match the “Howdy, Modi” rally then-President Donald Trump staged for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019 at a state fair in Houston. Modi responded in kind a few months later with a massive gathering billed as “Namaste, Trump” in India’s Gujarat state. The two regularly heaped praise on each other, even as Modi’s policies on human rights and democracy were criticized as abusive.

Garcetti, as a political appointee, has little expertise in India beyond several visits and a year of college study of two languages spoken here, Hindi and Urdu. He does not have much professional experience in diplomacy, although he has a master’s in international relations and was a Rhodes scholar, and he chairs C40 Cities, a global network on climate change. Traditionally, US envoys to New Delhi are steeped in knowledge of the complex, volatile region or have lofty credentials.

It may not matter.

“Overall, the trajectory of US-India relations has been going steadily upward for two decades,” said Vikram Singh, an India expert at the US Institute for Peace’s Asia Center. The changes in the relationship are more likely to be in form and efficiency, with the substantive issues too big to allow for major shits in the dealings between the two countries, he said. Those include forming a bulwark against an aggressive China and US requests for assistance on Afghanistan.