Opinion J D Vance’s India visit: The recasting
Amid global tumult, it framed convergence of interests, built on gains of PM Modi's America trip
The US V-P announced that the Terms of Reference (ToR) for a bilateral trade agreement have been finalised. 
US Vice President J D Vance’s four-day visit to India came at a crucial juncture, amid profound changes in Washington’s approach to the world. The optics of the visit, as well as Vance’s speech in Jaipur on Tuesday, must be seen in the context of the gathering apprehensions around the Donald Trump administration’s trade policy, its rethinking of the US’s role in the world, its hardening stance on immigration. Against this backdrop, the images of the Vance family sight-seeing, the play on the Indian connection through Second Lady Usha Vance, and the photogenic warmth of the meeting with PM Narendra Modi, with the couple’s three children participating, have led to a perceptible softening. The tenor of the trip has been in stark contrast to the hard and stark stance taken by the V-P in Europe during the Munich conference earlier this year. His speech in Jaipur only underlined this.
The US V-P announced that the Terms of Reference (ToR) for a bilateral trade agreement have been finalised. He spoke of deepening defence cooperation and about offering the latest defence equipment, notably the F-35 fighter jet. He also made a case for exporting US hydrocarbons to India, and partnering in energy exploration as well as emerging technologies, including AI. The Trump administration remains consistent in its approach to the Indo-Pacific — there has been clarity on the China challenge from Trump’s first term through to the Biden administration. Vance’s welcoming of India’s leadership of the Quad is important in this context.
Vance has sought to frame bilateral ties in terms of a convergence of interests, free from what he sees as the shibboleths of a defunct ideology. He drew a line between the Trump-Vance outlook and the “failed ideas” of their predecessors and their “attitude of preachiness… and condescension”. The takeaway from Vance’s visit — just over two months after the Modi-Trump summit in Washington — will be that, amid the unsettling and rebalancing, India may have more room for manoeuvre. The challenge now is to build on this momentum amid the tumult in the global economic and strategic order that threatens prolonged uncertainty.
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