Delhi held – When Barack Obama defined India-US relations as “the defining partnership of the 21st century”, it was underlined with long-term assurances about the bilateral relationship. However, that assessment was without imagining a stress-test for the relationship, at least of the kind that the India-US relationship has undergone since the second Trump administration. The announcement of the trade deal by the leaders of the two countries brings to an end a tumultuous period that has tested almost every aspect of the bilateral relationship, from trade and defense to geopolitics.

Although the contours of the trade agreement have yet to be revealed, announcements from both leaders suggest its broad outlines. Nevertheless, the past communication gap between President Trump’s announcements and the official stance of the Indian government should act as a deterrent, if not a deterrent.

The possibility of reducing reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods from 50 per cent to 18 per cent, along with the possibility that the punitive 25 per cent tariff imposed on India’s purchases of Russian oil could be removed, could suddenly make India one of the lowest-tariff economies in the Indo-Pacific. Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam will all face higher tariff barriers.

After the so-called “mother of all deals” with the EU, this change appears, from India’s perspective, to be a reward for remaining robust in negotiations with the United States and rapidly concluding other trade agreements.