No possibility of a trade agreement during President Trump’s India visit, cl

Washington: Eyes of all the analysts from India and the United States are focused on the India visit of US President Trump, coming up in February. The diplomats and leaders from both countries are claiming that many positives will emerge from the visit. At the same time, a thick possibility of signing a trade agreement is also being predicted. But some of the analysts have claimed that given the current scenario, the trade agreement may not be signed between the two countries. But these analysts have claimed that defence-related agreements will be signed during the visit of President Trump.

Cordial relations are developing between India and the United States. But the leaderships of both countries have repeatedly accepted that the relations have failed to achieve the expected height. India and the United States had set the target of taking the bilateral trade to $500 billion. But the countries have not concurred on this issue. The US industry is complaining that it is not getting the requisite opportunity in the Indian market. Whereas, the Trump administration has taken decisions detrimental to the interests of Indian IT and other related sectors. In this scenario, necessary progress has not been made to resolve the trade disputes between the two countries. Analyst Ashley J. Tellis of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace pointed this out.

Against this background, Tellis claimed that not much is expected from the India visit of US President Donald Trump. Tellis added that defence related agreement could be signed between India and the United States, during President Trump’s visit. But Tellis claimed that this also could not be guaranteed. Meanwhile, India expects to get advanced defence technologies from the United States. But India is not willing to hurt its traditional defence partner, Russia nor it is willing to reduce military cooperation with Russia, for this. Whereas, the United States wants to increase its share in the Indian defence market.

It has been repeatedly exposed that this imposes limitations on the defence cooperation between India and the United States. The United States had threatened to impose sanctions when India announced its decision to purchase S-400 air defence system from Russia. President Trump himself had warned that if India did not reverse its decision, it would have to pay a dear price.

Therefore, there is a challenge faced by both countries to increase cooperation, clearing these differences.

Despite the disputes and difference of opinions, President Trump has repeatedly said that he praises and supports India. Some analysts are claiming that he can make some significant announcement to take the Indo-US relations to a new height.