PM Narendra Modi takes deals and dreams wishlist to US

NEW DELHI: Beyond the charm offensive for American business and a big-fat-Indian event with NRIs, what should be expected from Narendra Modi's first US visit? The hype surrounding the trip may have described it as "historic" and "transformational". In reality, it's unlikely to be any of that.

Still, India and US will want to achieve a few things in the medium term, and the success of this trip will be judged by whether Modi and Barack Obama can take those steps together.

Modi has consciously put behind him a humiliating decade-long US visa ban. He's trying to bury the fact that in the past few years India's been associated with policy paralysis, a tax-inspector raj and transfer-pricing problems.

US under Obama hasn't been all joy for its friends, a fact as true for India as it is for treaty allies like Israel and Japan. Obama's approach to India is little more than the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately variety. The economic side of his administration regards India as enemy No. 1. The first item on the agenda will be to ensure India and US rebuild the personal bonds at the top that existed till recently.

Ashley Tellis from Carnegie says, "Although it's true that states ultimately act in accordance with their national interests, their actions at the practical level are coloured by the private ties their leaders enjoy. The friendship...between then US deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott and minister of external affairs Jaswant Singh in the aftermath of the 1998 Indian nuclear tests is one such example."

Stalled Indo-US dialogues on Central Asia, West Asia, Af-Pak and Africa are likely to be revived. Obama and Modi should find a solution to the WTO impasse on the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). It's not in India's interest to pass up on TFA, and not in US's to ignore India's need to protect its small farmers. Modi will have to spell out policy changes he'll make to attract US business.

The PM will want the US to give India access to clean technology. Modi is interested in combating climate change. Obama, who's likely to have a thin legacy when he demits office, can count on a big climate-change deal with India.

In global climate change negotiations, big offender China is known to take shelter behind India. But India is at a different place with low per-capita emissions. India and the US can look at a more symbiotic approach — think clean coal, mitigation and adaptation.

Modi must use political capital to clean up Manmohan Singh's nuclear liability mess. The US is unlikely to help India get into the non-proliferation regimes (Wassenaar, NSG, MTCR and Australia Group) for less.

All those in Washington who opposed the Indo-US nuclear deal are in office now, and dislike it as much now as they did then. For India to get into defence manufacturing seriously, it needs access to these regimes.