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Harris must reverse downslide in India-US relations

opinionHarris must reverse downslide in India-US relations

Not just Hunter Biden but other members of President Joe Biden’s family have repeatedly been accused of being overly chummy with Ukraine and China. Apart from Hunter, other members of the Biden family have been accused of receiving money from Ukraine or China. It is difficult to believe that Joe Biden’s warmth towards Ukraine has anything to do with money, or the way in which he has sometimes resorted to policy that assists the CCP in meeting its objectives. Errors of judgment are much more likely to be the cause of such missteps by Biden than money received by members of the Biden family. Kamala Harris would have been loyally echoing the White House line on Ukraine and China and privately may have the view that the Ukraine war needs to be and that China is a threat to the US. If so, the sooner she makes such views public, the better are her chances of prevailing over Trump in November.

Public mood in the US is souring on continuing with the Ukraine war and the many free passes being given to the CCP for the depredations for activities which are hostile to the interests of the US as well as to its friends and allies. A major misstep of Biden has been to allow Europeanists in his administration to dominate policy on India such that the security of the Indo-Pacific is compromised to the benefit of the CCP. Garbage from Sino-Wahhabi propaganda outlets which are painting a dystopian view of India has for years littered the internet and carried on major US platforms. The effect has been to create a toxicity about India in a part of the US that is based on fake news. A similar exercise has been taking place in India against the US, with each reinforcing the other. The nightmare of the CCP is a strong India-US partnership of the kind Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought in 2014 with Obama, and the CCP is doing everything in its power to make sure this does not happen.

If the 10 September debate with Kamala Harris goes as badly for Donald Trump as the previous Presidential debate went badly for Joe Biden, he would most likely give enough ground to Harris to enable her to win the US Presidency, becoming the first woman to ever become the President of the US. The fact that no woman has ever won the right to the keys of the White House is not a distinction but a stain for the US, which for long has been the world’s most powerful democracy. Without India, there is no way that the US can secure the Indo-Pacific, including the Taiwan Straits. Bringing NATO into the conflict in a lead role rather than Asian (including some ASEAN) partners would not work, given the sorry record of NATO in Asia during the wars it has fought there. Yet such is precisely what a Europe-obsessed Joe Biden would do were he to secure a second term.

In contrast, Kamala Harris has by her own admission never been to Europe, unlike most members of the Biden Cabinet, whose international travel is almost entirely confined to countries on the other side of the Atlantic. A President Harris is therefore much more likely to have Asian countries as the lead US allies in the Indo-Pacific than NATO, an organisation that has desperately been searching for a new role since the USSR collapsed in 1991. Until now, it has found it in a manner that has been disastrous for US and EU relations with Russia, which is to live in disbelief that Cold War 1.0 has for decades been replaced by Cold War 2.0, this time with China rather than the USSR as the foe. Of course, such a course has been welcome news for the PRC, whose outlets have been busy inflaming anti-Russian feelings within NATO and anti-Atlanticist feelings within Russia since 1997. Given such a reality, once elected, Kamala Harris needs to work towards giving the highest priority to a strong India-US partnership. Should she do so, she would find in PM Modi a willing partner in building such a relationship.

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