Despite unprecedented outreach by Prime Minister Modi, India–US ties are under strain—not due to New Delhi’s actions, but because of Donald Trump’s erratic diplomacy and strategic disregard.

On August 11, 2025, Pakistan’s Army Chief General Asim Munir visited the United States—his second visit in less than two months—and made provocative threats against India from US soil, declaring, “We’ll start from India’s East, where they have located their most valuable resources, and then move westwards,” indicating an intent to destabilize India’s eastern front. He also issued nuclear threats, warning that Pakistan, as a nuclear-armed state, would take “half the world down with us” if threatened.

India swiftly condemned these remarks. The Ministry of External Affairs responded by calling Pakistan an “irresponsible nuclear state” and stated: “Such nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan’s stock-in-trade. We deeply regret that such inflammatory and irresponsible rhetoric was aired on American soil.” These developments highlight the ongoing strategic challenges India faces in maintaining regional stability amid provocative posturing by Pakistan.

A decade of strategic engagement

It is both unfair and analytically flawed to blame Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the current turbulence in India–US relations. Since the beginning of his tenure in 2014, Modi has actively pursued outreach and undertaken significant steps across multiple domains to strengthen strategic ties with the United States.

During his first term, India and the US signed several major strategic agreements, including LEMOA (2016), COMCASA (2018), and the Industrial Security Annex (2019)—an extension of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA)—which deepened defense-industrial cooperation and information sharing. He also enhanced regional engagement in the Indo-Pacific through the Quad and other strategic frameworks. In his second term, Modi consistently advanced closer ties with Washington through initiatives such as the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness (2022), iCET (2022), INDUS-X (2023), expanded space cooperation, and a sharper focus on Quad-led regional engagement.

Strategic convergence also extended to West Asia via the I2U2 framework (India–Israel–UAE–US), focusing on infrastructure, food security, and clean energy. These sustained efforts transformed the India–US relationship into a comprehensive global strategic partnership spanning defense, technology, regional security, and global governance.

Notably, despite once being denied entry into the United States, Prime Minister Modi remained deeply committed to the partnership, consistently describing it as a defining relationship for India. He has frequently emphasized the United States’ central role in India’s economic transformation, famously stating, “When I look towards the East, I see the western shores of the United States.” His commitment to strengthening these ties is evident in the number of high-level visits he made to the US, as well as the warm and personal manner in which he always received visiting American dignitaries in India—often breaking diplomatic protocol to greet them with hugs, firm handshakes, and unmistakable warmth. His use of personal diplomacy with US leaders has remained unmatched.

When President Trump visited India in February 2020, Modi hosted him at the grand “Namaste Trump” event in the world’s largest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, where he hailed Trump as a “true friend” and led a crowd of over 100,000 in welcoming the US President. The scale and symbolism of the reception were unprecedented, underscoring........

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