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Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Trump and Modi -- Ignored By the Media

There really has been precious little coverage of President Trump's trip to India.  So far, I saw a number of stories about Trump's visit to the Taj Mahal with the first lady.  There were a few stories about the enormous rally held in a cricket stadium.  Today, the media focus seems to be a violent demonstration completely unrelated to Trump that happened in India while he was there.  These all miss the point of the visit, however.

Trump is signing a deal with Indian prime minister Modi during the trip for the USA to sell India about $3 billion in arms.  India is moving much closer to the USA.  That's the big news.  Anyone who remembers the Cold War remembers India as the head of the "non-aligned" nations.  Prime ministers like Indira Ghandi tried to play the USA off against the Soviet Union.  India stagnated economically in those years under socialism.  In the last decade or so, however, India has moved decisively away from socialism and embraced capitalism.  The result has been a rapidly growing Indian economy and a rising standard of living across the subcontinent.  Literally tens or hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty in India.  Indeed, India is now a growing rival in Asia for China.  The fact of much closer relations between the USA and India is one of the major geopolitical events of the last five years.  It has the ability to reshape much of what happens in Asia.  It's very good news for America.  No wonder the media is ignoring it.

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