"There's A Deal To Be Had": Fareed Zakaria To NDTV On Trump, India-US Trade

A trade deal with the US is possible provided India handles it carefully, since President Donald Trump, though transactional, also wants to announce a deal, foreign affairs expert Fareed Zakaria told NDTV in an exclusive interview today. Speaking to Chief Executive Editor and Editor-In-Chief Rahul Kanwal, he said the areas of difficulty in a deal are clear enough and with some deft handling, Prime Minister Narendra Modi can get Trump to agree. 

"If Prime Minister Modi were to say to him, look, you're a politician, I'm a politician, I can't make these concessions on agriculture. I have elections to face. But in return, here are the things I can do. And then you know the things Trump cares about -- investment in America, buy some American products, maybe defence products, whatever it is. I think there's a deal to be had," Zakaria said. 

The most important thing with Donald Trump, he said, is that the "announcement of the deal is all he cares about". 

"You can announce that you are going to invest $200 billion in the United States. He is not going to check six months later how much you have invested. If you look at his history with all these kinds of deals, he wants the announcement of the deal. He is not that concerned about the nitty gritty of following it up," he added.

PM Modi last spoke to Donald Trump on December 11, giving wing to speculation about the long-awaited trade deal being imminent. The deal has noticeably slowed down since India-US relations took a sharp downturn in August following Washington's imposition of 50 per cent tariff on India over New Delhi's continued purchase of Russian oil. 

The discussion between the two leaders came after Russian President Vladimir Putin's high-profile visit to India and the ample display of his close relationship with PM Modi. It had sparked criticism that President Trump's moves have just pushed India -- seen as one of the most important allies of the US -- closer to Russia. 

Asked if the current rough patch in India-US ties is "temporary turbulence" or a "more fundamental recast", Zakaria said, "I hope it is temporary turbulence because let's put it in perspective". 

Given the developments over the last 25 years, US and India have built a relationship based on shared values and interests, in which expat Indians had a key role to play, he said. The ongoing situation is entirely about trade - and has been the result of the protectionist stance of both US and India, exacerbated by Donald Trump's "mercurial, volatile, irreverent personality", he said.

So while this is a bad moment for US-India government-to-government relations, "I think if you think of that broader context, you know, we are in much better shape," especially if the idea is to strengthen the corridor between entrepreneurs, technologists, business and scientific establishment of the two nations, he said. 

"In all those areas, fundamentally, there is a huge convergence of interests and values and we could build it out without worrying about what the particular government-to-government momentary spat is or isn't," he added.

Trump's Claims On Stopping "War"

About Trump's multiple claims that he "stopped India-Pakistan war" following Operation Sindoor earlier this year, Zakaria said it is a "completely unwise policy" that Trump is pursuing. 

"It is this crazy quest to claim that he has stopped all the wars in the world and therefore deserves the Nobel Prize. But you know he is the President of the United States," and India, he added, "is going to have to be creative about addressing this concern that the American president has".

Since May, Trump has repeated over 60 times that he "helped settle" tension between India and Pakistan, which India has brushed off, consistently denying any third-party intervention -- leading to a situation that many see as another hurdle for the trade deal. 

The reality, Zakaria said, is that "Trump is a complicated guy in many ways, but he does understand leverage". 

Trump, he said, knows that India needs this deal more than he does. 

"Now he may miscalculate and not realise the point that India is very proud, very nationalistic, and will take economic pain rather than do certain things. But surely there is a creative way to say to Trump, 'You were very helpful in achieving a ceasefire' without saying you actually brokered the ceasefire. This is what diplomacy is about -- these formulations that allow both sides in some way or other to feel satisfied," he added.