Obama or Nixon: Which template would Donald Trump's India visit follow?

Current Affairs
While it wasn't an official visit, the primary inhabitant of the White House to arrive on the shores of India was Ulysses S Grant, and likely not the last with, suppose a dodgy feeling of style. The eighteenth President of the United States, Grant served two continuous terms in office somewhere in the range of 1869 and 1877 and was likewise the Commanding General of the US Army when the Civil War was won. Not long after his term finished, Grant and his better half Julia set out on a more than multi year world visit that expected to extend the US as an outward looking force prepared to draw in with the world. Award landed in Mumbai in February 1879 on board USS Richmond and embraced the standard excursion, on elephant back, to the Taj Mahal in Agra, whereupon the Grants thought it lovely yet not more than the Capitol Hill building. Award met the then Viceroy Robert Lytton in Kolkata and pronounced adoration for his dad Edward Bulwer-Lytton's books. In 1982, the San Jose State University organized the yearly, whimsical Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest to grant the most noticeably terrible conceivable opening lines of a novel as a tribute to Bulwer-Lytton's "It was a dull stormy night" in his 1830 work Paul Clifford.
It is not yet clear what hesitant explorer Donald J Trump, the 45th President of the US on his two-day visit between February 24-26 makes of the straightforward Sabarmati Ashram, the Taj Mahal, or the 'Kem Cho, Trump' rally in Ahmedabad where PM Narendra Modi guarantees there would be "millions and millions" in participation.

Past the bearhugs and protestations of incredible individual bond between the two chiefs, this visit conveys a more value-based flavor than other ongoing presidential excursions to India. Not at all like previously, an economic agreement between the two involves centerstage, given the setting of Trump's residential strategy needs. Trump, oneself maintained ace of arrangement making has as of late named India "duty ruler" in a tweet pointing towards India's penchant to vigorously...Read More

Would be unwise to alienate India, turn to Pakistan as partner: US expert

Company News

Amid an increased India-Pak tension on Kashmir and an ongoing Afghan peace talks, a top American foreign policy expert has cautioned the Trump Administration against any strategic tilt towards Pakistan and moving away from India.
"The US would be unwise to turn to Pakistan as a strategic partner," Richard N Hass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in an op-ed last week.Pakistan sees a friendly government in Kabul as vital to its security and competition with arch-rival India, he wrote in his op-ed that was first published by Project Syndicate and thereafter, on the CFR website.
"There is little reason to believe that the military and intelligence services, which continue to run Pakistan, will rein in the Taliban or rule out terrorism," Hass said."Equally, the US would be unwise to alienate India. Yes, India has a tradition of protectionist trade policies and often frustrates US policymakers with its reluctance to cooperate fully on strategic issues," he wrote.
But democratic India, which will soon surpass China as the world's most populous country and will boast the world's fifth-largest economy, is a good long-term bet, he added.
"It is a natural partner to help balance China. India has rejected participation in China's Belt and Road Initiative, whereas Pakistan, struggling economically, has embraced it," Hass said.According to the top American scholar, the US would also be unwise to race for the exits from Afghanistan.

Peace talks with the Taliban mostly look like a means to extract US forces from the country, he claimed, adding that the process is reminiscent of Vietnam, where a 1973 agreement between the US and North Vietnam provided a pretext for American withdrawal from the South but not a basis for peace....Read More

China 'blackmailing' India into using Huawei for its 5G infra: US lawmaker

International News

China is "blackmailing" India into using Huawei for its 5G infrastructure, an influential US Congressman alleged Tuesday, even as Beijing hoped that New Delhi will not succumb to any pressure from America.
The US has banned Huawei, the world leader in telecom equipment and the number two smartphone producer, over concerns of security, and Washington has been putting pressure on other countries to restrict the operations of the Chinese telecom firm.
The Trump administration has been asking all its allies and friends, including India, to block the entry of Huawei from using their 5G infrastructure, which is a next generation cellular technology with download speeds stated to be 10 to 100 times faster than the current 4G LTE networks.
"China is now blackmailing India into using Huawei for its 5G infrastructure they know no bounds!" Congressman Jim Banks said.The 5G networking standard is seen as critical because it can support the next generation of mobile devices in addition to new applications like driverless cars. The Chinese Communist Party "moves to strong-arming countries into exposing themselves to surveillance and espionage", he alleged.
However, China on Tuesday hoped that India would make an "independent and objective" judgement on permitting its telecom giant Huawei in 5G trials and services in the country.
According to a recent report quoting Union Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, India plans to develop its own 5G network. Senator Marsha Blackburn alleged that China, along with state-run company Huawei, is looking to push its spy embedded technology onto America and its allies.

 "We need to draw a hard line to protect our national security interests and intellectual property," she said....Read More