"If India gets trade deal, that would be big confidence-building measure": Michael Kugelman on India-US relations

Washington, DC [US], September 25 (ANI): South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman has highlighted the importance of trade talks between India and the United States, stating that a potential trade deal could serve as a major confidence-building measure and help stabilise the bilateral relationship while easing tensions.

Speaking to ANI, Kugelman noted that a trade deal would reflect a willingness on both sides to engage constructively and move towards resolving key issues.

“The path to any type of reset in this relationship, the path to stabilizing this relationship and moving away from the crisis is to have a trade deal and so I think it is significant that even with tensions as high as they’ve been, we have continued to have trade talks in recent days and there’s no reason to think that those talks are going to stop anytime soon,” he said.

He highlighted that securing a trade agreement would act as a confidence-building measure.

“If we do get a trade deal, that would be a big confidence-building measure, would restore some trust in the relationship, and it would also reduce what has really been one of the biggest tension points in the relationship during this crisis, and that’s the very high US tariffs that have been imposed on India,” he added.

Kugelman also addressed concerns around the recent increase in H-1B visa fees, calling it another indicator of strained ties between the two countries, despite high-level communications.

“This decision to impose high fees on the H-1B visa program…is another indication that the relationship is still in a bad state, even after we had that phone call between Trump and Modi,” he said.

He explained that the H-1B programme has been central to commercial relations and the US-India tech partnership. “The H-1B visa issue is very significant for the relationship because it’s contributed in a big way to broader commercial relations, and it has really bolstered people-to-people ties. It has also been a big part of the tech partnership between the US and India, given that you have a number of Indian tech companies that have benefited from this program and the workers that are in the US on that program.”

He cautioned that higher H-1B visa fees could pose long-term challenges to US-India tech cooperation. “These kinds of steps make it much more difficult for Indian tech workers to be based in the United States; it represents a pretty significant blow to US-India tech relations,” he said. (ANI)

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