Curtis served as Deputy Assistant to the President and the National Security Council’s Senior Director for South and Central Asia from 2017 to 2021. In an interview to IANS, he described Rubio’s visit as ‘like a Band-Aid’.
“I think it was very important for Secretary Rubio to go to India to try to repair some of the damage done to the US-India relationship last year. I think his visit served as a kind of Band-Aid on the relationship,” Curtis said.
Curtis is currently the director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. He said the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting held during Rubio’s visit was very symbolic and showed that the grouping still had momentum, even if the leaders did not meet.
Along with this, he said that many events that happened last year have troubled India, including tariffs, ban on immigration and Washington’s closeness with Pakistan.
“All this is ingrained in the Indian mindset. I think this shows that the Trump government in the second term has not prioritized India and its relations with India as much as it did in the first term,” Curtis said.
Curtis said that now only Trump can improve relations on a large scale.
“Only President Trump can really reset the relationship. I think that’s only if he shows that he prioritizes the relationship and wants to see it better than what happened last year,” she said.
He pointed to some recent developments, which he said were viewed positively by New Delhi, including Washington allowing India to continue importing Russian oil.
Curtis also said that Indians are worried that Trump may soften his attitude towards China after the recent summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“I think the outcome of that summit has perhaps convinced Indians that President Trump is more interested in building good relations with China and is focusing on trade rather than strategic competition,” he said.
The former White House official said comments about arms sales to Taiwan being used as a bargaining chip have raised concerns across the Indo-Pacific region.
Regarding the Quad, Curtis said that the ministerial engagement remained active, but without the Leaders Summit, doubts remained. “Last year we were not able to hold a leader-level meeting. This was the first time in five years that no leader-level meeting was held,” he said.
Curtis said that Trump coming to India or publicly emphasizing the importance of India for the US Indo-Pacific strategy will help in rebuilding trust. “The best thing is that President Trump keeps talking about the importance of India,” he said.
Amid growing concerns about China’s influence in the region, the Quad grouping of America, India, Japan and Australia has become an important part of the Indo-Pacific strategy.
India-US relations have seen ups and downs in the past year due to trade tensions, immigration concerns and changing regional diplomacy. Analysts in Washington and New Delhi are keeping a close eye on whether Trump’s second term will maintain the same strategic emphasis on India as it did during Trump’s first term.
Big political change in Karnataka, Siddaramaiah will leave the post of CM today!
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