US Secretary of State John Kerry, who arrives in New Delhi on Sunday for the annual US-India Strategic Dialogue, has sought to kick off his visit with a feel-good video message hailing India as a rising power and reaffirming American support for its induction as a permanent member in an expanded UN Security Council.
Even so, all pointers suggest that Kerry’s first visit to New Delhi as America’s top diplomat may well be dominated by a host of ticklish economic and trade issues, much of it at the behest of US Congress and Corporate America.
In coordinated moves in recent days, a bipartisan group of as many as 170 US lawmakers and more than a dozen business associations, including the formidable US Chamber of Commerce, have sent President Obama and Kerry strongly-worded letters, demanding that India be pressured to change policies that purportedly threaten American exports, jobs and innovation.
US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake, too, went public on this issue, commenting: “There has been lot of concern on the part of American business community about what they see as growing obstacles to trade and investment (in India).”
He indicated that intellectual property protection, local content restrictions and continued restrictions on FDI in different sectors are “certainly going to be our focus”.
These are precisely the issues being flagged by US lawmakers and industry.