Trump is shredding America’s most important alliances – and its credibility ...Middle East

Washington DC – As Americans fire up their barbeques this Labor Day holiday, few will divert their attention from the hamburgers sizzling on the grill, and pause to reflect upon events a world away in the Chinese city of Tianjin.

But in every way, the meeting there of the Shanghai Co-Operation Organisation (SCO) hosted by President Xi Jinping and attended this year by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Turkey, Iran and Belarus, is the harbinger of a new, dramatic chapter in global affairs.

Xi told his visitors on Sunday that the SCO now bore “greater responsibilities” for keeping regional peace in the midst of a “fluid and chaotic” international situation. “The world today is swept by once-in-a-century transformations”, claimed the Chinese leader.

Nothing is more remarkable at the SCO summit than the sudden, burgeoning relationship between Xi and Modi. They have been unwittingly propelled into one another’s embrace by US President Donald Trump, and are creating an alliance that shreds three decades of American efforts to lure Delhi into Washington’s corner.

For that, only Trump and his global trade war are to blame. A mere six months ago, the sight of Modi breaking bread in China with Xi was unthinkable. Successive American presidents, including Trump during his first term, engaged in a non-stop charm offensive to reverse decades of Cold War tension and enmity between India and the United States.

But Trump’s lumbering, clumsy handling of the bilateral relationship with New Delhi has consigned all of that to history’s ash-heap, and created an opportunity for India and China to bury their own hatchets.

From the administration of Bill Clinton onwards, successive US presidents viewed India as the country of the future, with a growing economy to match. No longer hostage to Cold War relationships that had boosted Pakistan’s standing in Washington, they rapidly expanded economic and strategic co-operation with an array of Indian leaders.

By 2014, with Modi elected to power in Delhi, the US would even reverse a decade-long travel ban imposed on him over “severe violations of religious freedom” during sectarian riots in 2002, when he served as Gujarat’s Chief Minister.

The high-watermark in US relations came in September 2019. India’s Prime Minister travelled to the Texas City of Houston where Trump joined him for “Howdy Modi”, a day of celebration that brought 50,000 people to hear the US President describe his guest as “one of America’s most devoted, most loyal friends”.

Modi’s currency in Washington continued rising during the Biden presidency. India served as a cornerstone of “The Quad”, a revived grouping alongside the US, Australia and Japan that sought – in Biden’s words – to play “a defining role in the region” countering Chinese expansionism. India became such a trusted ally that only last year Washington approved Delhi’s request to purchase $4 billion (£3bn) of MQ-9B Reaper drones, as well as joint production of fighter jet engines that are considered some of America’s most sensitive military technology.

All of that now appears to have been sacrificed on the altar of Trump’s global trade war, and his sudden, surprise determination to single India out for punishment over its continuing purchase of Russian oil. Modi can be excused for thinking that he has been blindsided by Trump. Their personal relationship always appeared authentically warm, and went off the boil with extraordinary rapidity in June.

Then, to the grave irritation of Modi, Trump personally claimed credit for brokering a truce after a flare-up in tensions between Indian and Pakistani forces in the disputed region of Kashmir. Trump’s race to declare on social media that he had negotiated a “full and immediate ceasefire”, took Delhi by surprise, with Modi insisting the Americans played no role in negotiations. Pakistan, by contrast, nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Last month, Trump’s 50 per cent tariffs on Indian exports to the United States came into force, the President grousing about Delhi’s “obnoxious” trade barriers to American goods. “WE HAVE A MASSIVE TRADE DEFICIT WITH INDIA!!!” he wrote, as he imposed secondary sanctions over Delhi’s purchase of Russian oil.

Modi is now voting with his feet. He has reportedly refused to take Trump’s calls since June, and instead has raced headlong to mend fences with China. In Tianjin on Sunday, the two leaders pledged to resolve lingering territorial disputes over their own bilateral border, and to seize the opportunity to remind Washington of the enormous market that exists for two-way trade between them.

“The interests of 2.8 billion people in both our countries are tied to our co-operation”, Modi told Xi. The Chinese leader said the two nations must “enable each other’s success, and to have the dragon and the elephant dance together”.

Also in Tianjin for the summit was a host of other figures eager to upend the rules-based international system. Putin was warmly welcomed, along with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Belarussian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. More than 20 heads of state are there, sending a clarion message to Washington: that while Americans are marking the end of the summer season with a holiday weekend, their country’s hegemony on the world stage is coming to an end.

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