Unpredictable American diplomacy complicating India trade talks, says ex-US diplomat

Former US Charge d’Affaires to India Donald Heflin warned that Washington’s broken diplomatic norms and loss of career diplomats are complicating trade talks with New Delhi. While cautiously optimistic about incoming envoy Sergio Gor, he cautioned US unpredictability may strain ties

Washington: Former US Charge d’Affaires to India, Donald Heflin, has warned that Washington’s unpredictable diplomatic approach is complicating trade negotiations with New Delhi.

Heflin, who is now a Senior Fellow at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, argued that the traditional norms and processes of diplomacy are “broken” in Washington.

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“Normally, you go to a country like India and say we are thinking about raising tariffs on you, and here’s why. Now, if you can address the problem we’re concerned about, or give us some other possible answer, we are happy to talk about that. Then you work out the issues with mid-level professional diplomats, and then the leaders talk,” he added.

Heflin pointed out that “a lot of diplomats have been fired or have resigned or retired in the last eight months, and many of those remaining have learned the lesson that you don’t raise an unpopular opinion.”

He further explained that while political appointees were always a feature of the US foreign policy apparatus, the current administration has “more political appointees and a lot of the particularly higher-level professionals” are exiting the service.

“What normally should happen is a leader like Trump should be able to turn to the State Department and say, I want to do this, figure out how to do it. Now, everybody who knows how to do that is gone or afraid to speak out. So, that’s a real problem,” he noted.

However, Heflin remained “cautiously optimistic” about the recent announcement of Sergio Gor as the next US ambassador to India. “Sergio is not one of the radicals in the Trump administration. He was a voice for reasonableness during the first Trump term. He’ll be okay. I think he’ll be a steady hand at the wheel,” he said.

At the same time, Heflin reiterated that the absence of expertise may still hamper Sergio’s India assignment. “If you look at the depth chart of the embassy, some of the people he normally would be able to count on are now gone or they’ll go soon or they’re afraid to speak out. So, a lot of the tools that he would normally have won’t be there,” he stressed.

Regarding the US policy shift in the Indo-Pacific, Heflin pointed out that “renegotiating economic arrangements with China is a huge priority” for the Trump administration and that, in turn, is impacting US ties to other nations in the region, including India.

“There is a temptation to say if we could cut a good deal with China, that’d be great. If we could peel them off of Russia right now, that’d be the best thing we could do. Well, what about Australia, Japan and India, who kind of lined themselves up with us. What do we do about them? That could be happening,” he explained.

The former senior US diplomat had a piece of advice for India, too. “I think India is going to have to make a mental adjustment here. If you look back over the decades, the US has been a constant suitor of India. India was always hot and cold. Well, the US is taking the same attitude. I’m not sure how much India’s pride will let it do that. But I think that’s where we are now,” he concluded.