While India waged a war on Pakistan-sponsored terror through Operation Sindoor, her so-called Quad allies ghosted her in real time. US President Donald Trump’s diplomacy visibly turned the Quad from a strategic alliance into a WhatsApp group chat, leaving messages unread. The Quad’s silence is bizarre as Pakistan is nothing more than a frontline Chinese province, and the grouping was formed with an eye on China.
The India-US relationship was sold to us as a geopolitical bromance, a grand alliance of democracies, a bulwark against authoritarian China, and a potential trade tango. Enter Donald J. Trump, who wears unpredictability like a badge. Bereft of nuance, he mistakes grating his own greatness for diplomacy. His track record of alienating allies like Britain, Canada, Europe, and Japan in his first 100 days is well-documented. Now, it’s India’s turn.
Trump’s latest unthought-through utterances have ruffled New Delhi’s feathers, exasperated its diplomats, and left the “strategic partnership” resembling a WhatsApp group where the admin posts cringe memes and members wonder whether to exit the group or ignore the ludicrous quotes on rosebuds.
DEAL DROLL
In his attempt to claim credit for the fragile de-escalation after days of hot battle between Indian and Pakistani armed forces, Donald Trump has left a mess. He did help broker the deal but broke the news before India and Pakistan could, denying India a chance to inform her citizens about the pause in hostilities.
Worse, he declared that India and Pakistan would negotiate at a neutral venue and offered to mediate on Kashmir, a proposal, even from friends, India firmly rejects. Trump is considered Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “friend”. Of course, there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests when it comes to international politics.
Two days later, as Modi prepared to address the nation on Operation Sindoor’s success, Trump boasted he had brokered the deal by dangling trade concessions to coax India. “I said we’re gonna do a lot of trade with you guys, let’s stop it,” he crowed, with the finesse of a villain in a David Dhawan film. A diplomatic facepalm followed, not just in New Delhi but also in Washington DC. The ceasefire was a bilateral decision, not American arm-twisting, though the US might have facilitated it. Trump’s claims of using trade to bring peace were as grounded as his hair in a storm.
Undeterred, he doubled down, reoffering to mediate on Kashmir, a notion India has rebuffed since Bill Clinton’s 1990s overtures. India’s stance on Kashmir is as clear as a Himalayan stream: it’s a bilateral matter, and third parties can take a hike. Trump’s proposal was less an olive branch than a grenade lobbed into India’s calibrated foreign policy. By amplifying Kashmir globally, he irked New Delhi and handed Pakistan’s PR machine a free hit.
THE QUAD CONUNDRUM
If Trump’s ceasefire claims were a diplomatic gaffe, his silence on India’s security concerns was a betrayal. India’s recent military strikes on Pakistan-based terror camps, a response to the Pahalgam terrorist attack, received no support from the Quad — the US, Japan, Australia, and India — united to counter China. No endorsements, no tweets, not even a nod. It was as if India had texted “wyd?” to its Quad mates and been left on read.
This silence stings, given the Quad’s billing as a counterweight to China’s Pacific posturing. The US State Department’s tepid call for “restraint” from both India and Pakistan felt like a cop-out, equating a terrorism victim with its perpetrator. Trump’s rhetoric risks reintroducing the India-Pakistan hyphenation New Delhi has worked hard to erase. The clash stemmed not from a dispute but a terrorist attack on Indian soil. India’s response targeted terrorist infrastructure, not Pakistan itself.
The Quad’s reticence raises a thorny question: Is India the alliance’s overlooked partner, trotted out to counter China but sidelined when push comes to shove? Trump’s “America First” dogma, with its transactional lens, leaves India wondering if it’s a valued ally or a pawn on his MAGA chessboard. Critics point to India’s neutral stance on Russia’s Ukraine war as sowing doubts about its reliability. Yet, India’s pragmatism has indirectly benefited the West by keeping global crude oil prices in check.
Pakistan is nothing but a frontline state of China. And China was waging a proxy war against India, while battle-testing its military hardware.
That’s why the silence of the Quad, formed with an eye on China, is especially jarring.
TRADE TENSIONS
Then there’s the elusive India-US trade deal. The US has been pushing for lower tariffs on agricultural, tech and automobile exports. Negotiations were progressing. Until Trump’s ceasefire boasts threw a spanner in the works. By claiming he used trade as leverage, he painted India as a pushover, undermining Modi’s tough-negotiator image. Indian officials, wary of Trump’s protectionist streak, now fear he’ll demand concessions to flaunt his deal-making prowess.
India enjoys a $30 billion surplus, according to the US Trade Representative’s office. Trump, who views deficits as personal slights, has long griped about India’s “high tariffs” (ignoring steep US tariffs on Indian steel). India has retaliated with heavier tariffs on US steel, and negotiators are now “reassessing” the deal’s timeline, cautious of a partner who treats diplomacy like a reality TV cliffhanger.
A PARTNERSHIP IN PERIL
It took 25 years of hard work by successive governments in Delhi and DC to turn the India-US ties from one of suspicion to one of strategic partnership. Trump’s fiddling puts those years of diplomacy at stake.
Trump has introduced an element of mistrust in the India-US partnership, brimming with promise till a week ago. If Washington wants India as a credible counterbalance to China, it must ditch the theatrics and show respect. New Delhi, meanwhile, must assert its autonomy while nudging the US to act like a mature ally. Expecting this President to act like a mature man is not expecting much, is it?
