About this episode

The episode discusses the strained US-India ties and the implications of recent political changes.

Trump-Modi friendship was strong, but now US-India ties are strained. What caused the severe turbulence? Synopsis: The Straits Times’ senior columnist Ravi Velloor distils 45 years of experience covering the Asian continent, with expert guests. In this episode, senior columnist Ravi speaks with Prof Sumit Ganguly, Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and Director of the Huntington Program on improving US-India relations.  They discuss the severe turbulence in bilateral ties including the massive tariffs the Trump administration placed on India, India’s refusal to give Trump credit for intervening to stop the India-Pakistan conflict in May, 2025, and the removal of ‘Indo’ from the USIndoPacific Command, now reverted to its old name US Pacific Command – which Indians have taken as a deliberate slight from Washington.  They also examine the question: Is India playing a waiting game to see Trump off, and can the US really do without Indian backing if it is to maintain influence in the Indian Ocean. Highlights (click/tap above) 1:04 Why USIndoPacom was changed to USPacom 3:46 ‘Body blows’ to US-India…

People in this episode

Host: Ravi Velloor

Guest: Prof Sumit Ganguly

Topics covered

• US-India relations
• political tensions
• international diplomacy
• Trump administration
• foreign policy
• India-Pakistan conflict
• strategic alliances

Keywords

• US-India ties
• Trump-Modi friendship
• tariffs
• Indo-Pacific
• foreign policy
• India-Pakistan conflict
• China relations

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Stanford University, Hoover Institution, USIndoPacific Command, US Pacific Command

Places: India, Washington, Pakistan

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