The United States aims to strengthen India's ties while world alliances change on 03/19/2025

The American director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard crowned a two -day visit to India by praising the “huge opportunities” for American ties, even if President Donald's approach in terms of foreign policy develops alarms among the partners of Washington around the world.

Gabbard, the first high -level official of Trump's second administration to visit India, said this week at a security conference in New Delhi that Trump's “commitment” to guarantee peace and security is rooted in “realism” and “pragmatism”.

Speaking during the annual RaiGina dialogue, Gabbard said that, like Trump, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also committed to putting his country “first”.

“But that should not be misunderstood to signify that America is first of all America alone,” said Gabbard, using one of Trump's most popular slogans. “The relationships we build together are essential to advance our mutual interests.”

Trump’s recent movements questioning NATO security commitments, while kissing Russian accounts on Ukraine, alienated the traditional Washington allies in Europe. In Asia, allies wonder if they can count on Washington in a conflict with China.

Gabbard, who is at the head of 18 American intelligence agencies, told the strategic conference that the realization of peace “requires leaders who question the established point of view, or the way things have always been done.”

Is Modi really Trump's best friend in Asia?

During his remarks, Gabbard called Modi and Trump as “great friends”. The leaders gathered last month in Washington for conferences such as commercial and defense links. After meeting Gabbard, Modi said in a statement that he was looking forward to welcoming Trump to India later this year. Modi also joined Trump's social media platform, Truth Social on Tuesday.

Commenting on Trump's threat to introduce more prices in early April, which would also affect India, Gabbard told the Indian news agency Ani that there was “direct dialogue at the top” and that Trump and Modi worked on solutions that take into account the economic interests of the two countries.

In an online article, Modi said that he and Gabbard discussed the sharing of the commitments of “fighting terrorism and improving maritime and cybersecurity cooperation”.

Chietigj Bajpaee, principal researcher for Southern Asia to the reflection group on foreign policy based in London Chatham House, told DW that Gabbard's visit “indicates the priority that Washington attaches to his relationship with India”.

“Although this is not new, the India-US relationship has acquired a renewed momentum under Trump when it gives less value to traditional partners while seeking to forge a coalition of countries sharing the same ideas,” said Bajpaee.

The Indo-Pacific challenge

The United States maintains a network of alliances in Indo-Pacific, a strategic mega-region including the Indian Ocean in India, the South China Sea and the Western Pacific Ocean.

Gabbard is a former Hawaii MP who was born on the American Samoa Island. The American security chief is a Hindu who maintained links with India, especially as a member of the House India Caucus during his stay at the Congress. She also faced critics for her alleged support for the “Hindutva” or the Hindu nationalist movement.

On Tuesday, she told journalists in New Delhi that Indo-Pacific was the “geopolitical center of gravity for the 21st century”.

“Ensuring peace and stability here is essential for our collective security, our objective of economic prosperity. We must meet these challenges together,” she said.

Until now, the language on the Indo-Pacific used by the Trump administration has been in accordance with that of the previous administration, the State Department highlighting the need to maintain a “free and open” region.

The elephant in the room, which the United States and its partners consider to be threatening this “free and open” Indo-Pacific is China.

Under President Xi Jinping, China has built the largest navy in the world in number of ships. Beijing also claims that most of the Southern China Sea as a vital strangulation point for world trade as a Chinese territory.

Washington's long-term strategic priority is to prevent Beijing from completely dominating Indo-Pacific and maintaining the free movement of international trade.

The United States needs allies in the region, but Trump is not known to assess traditional multilateral alliance structures. His return to his duties drew attention to find out if Washington alliances with Japan and South Korea are on stable ground.

Trump also remained ambiguous on American commitments to defend Taiwan, which China considers a province of escape, even though Beijing increases pressure on the self-extent island after the election of President Lai Ching-Te.

In an interview with Bloomberg before the American elections, Trump, in his typical transactional style, criticized Taiwan for not having paid enough defense to dissuade China.

India and United States: partnership without attached chains?

Although India is not officially combined with the United States, it shares an interest in containing China.

“India is neither an official American ally [like Japan or South Korea]He is not an American opponent either [like China]. As such, he is not faced with allegations of “ not to get his weight '' that are the American allies, and it does not constitute an existential threat to the “global power of the United States like China,” said Chatham House analyst Chietigj Bajpae.

This is reflected in the quadrilateral, or “quad” security dialogue, which includes Australia and Japan with the United States and India. The platform allows informal coordination of strategic approaches in Indo-Pacific, without the binding commitments that support alliances.

“It seems that there is a renewed commitment to the Quad under the Trump administration, as the meeting of foreign ministers indicates shortly after the inauguration of Trump,” said Bajpaee.

“If anything, the groups like the quad are preferred by the Trump administration to the official commitments of the Alliance such as NATO. There are signs that the Trump administration can seek to rotate the quad towards an accent on its security dimensions, but that certainly does not restore its commitment,” he added.

Before the strategy conference Gabbard met Modi and the Indian Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh for what the Minister described as “large talks who included cooperation on defense and intelligence”.

During his talks with Gabbard, the Minister of Defense Singh also asked that the United States will label a separatist group Sikh, Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), as a terrorist organization. In 2023, the United States said that Indian intelligence officers were behind a plot to assassinate a SFJ chief on American soil. India denied participation.

Published by: Srinivas Mazumdaru