Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
Narendra Modi first rolled out the red carpet for Xi Jinping.
He shared a riverfront swing in his home state with the leader of China, the giant neighbor that he hoped his own large nation could emulate in economic prosperity. But as they chatted, Chinese troops got involved in a standoff with Indian troops along their shared border. The flare-up in 2014 was the first of several acts of aggression that would ultimately leave Mr. Modi embarrassed, his economy squeezed by the need to keep tens of thousands of Indian troops on a war footing high in the Himalayas for several years.
Years later, India’s strongman warmed up to the United States, putting even more of his political credit on the line to rapidly transform a relationship that had been only slowly shedding its Cold War-era frost. Mr. Modi developed such a bonhomie with President Trump in his first term that he broke with protocol to campaign for a second term for him at a stadium-packed event in Houston. Mr. Modi’s confidence in India’s increasing alignment with the United States grew after the Biden administration looked past that partisan play to continue expanding relations with India, a bulwark against China.
“A.I.” stands for “America and India,” Mr. Modi, who has a penchant for playing with acronyms, told a joint session of Congress last year.
Then came the very public humiliation of Mr. Modi by Mr. Trump, now in his second term. The president singled India out for a whopping 50 percent tariff, citing its purchases of Russian oil, and called India’s economy “dead.” And the president stirred rancor among Indians by giving the leadership of Pakistan — India’s smaller archrival, which Mr. Trump himself had previously called a state sponsor of terrorism — equal footing as he tried to settle a conflict between the Asian neighbors earlier this year.
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