There he was, sitting next to PM Narendra Modi, gnashing his teeth and lying through them. At their recent meeting in France, Donald Trump reiterated his frequent boast that he had stopped eight wars during his time in office. This is a highly ticklish issue for New Delhi because one of those conflicts is the Indo-Pakistani clash of last year. In the same breath, Trump declared that he would be there for India in case it was attacked – but only if Modi was at the helm of affairs.

Noted Indian commentators on Pakistan, such as Sushant Sareen of the Observer Research Foundation, are now explicitly claiming that the United States actively supported Pakistan during that conflict with India last year. Modi was indisputably the leader of India then. If Trump’s verbal guarantees carry any weight, the question must be asked flatly: why didn’t Trump support India when it fought Pakistan? The reality behind the public smiles is that our bilateral defence cooperation is currently in the toilet. The United States is withholding the delivery of critical jet engines required for India’s indigenous Tejas fighter jet programme.

In response to this strategic unreliability, New Delhi has deliberately chosen French Rafale fighter planes over the American F-35 platform, a procurement choice that has caused immense annoyance to Trump. This diplomatic drift is intentional, not accidental. Trump refused to attend the high-profile summit of the Quad security dialogue scheduled last........

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