India open to 'unprecedented' cooperation with US because of Chinese aggression, says ex-NSA McMaster

Washington: The Indian government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is willing to engage in "unprecedented" levels of cooperation with the United States, mainly due to Chinese aggression, but at the same time is "fearful" both of "entrapment and abandonment", former US National Security Adviser Lt Gen (retd) H R McMaster has stated in his latest book.

Giving the firsthand account of his tenure during the Donald Trump administration as the National Security Advisor, McMaster in his book "At War With Ourselves”, that hit the bookstores this Tuesday, says he met his Indian counterpart Ajit K Doval a day before he was fired by Trump.

“The day before I was fired, I met for dinner with my Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval, at Quarters 13, Fort McNair, a quiet place at the intersection of the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers, just south of the US Capitol. Doval is a character straight out of central casting. Betraying his background as the former director of his country’s Intelligence Bureau, he would lean into conversations, cock his head to the side as he spoke, and use hushed tones, even when discussing the most routine subjects,” McMaster writes.

“During our walk after dinner, he whispered, 'How much longer will we work together?' It did not take someone with Doval’s intelligence background to figure out I was departing the Trump administration. Without answering directly, I told him it had been a privilege and expressed confidence that there would be continuity,” he says.

McMaster writes they knew each other well enough for Doval to be direct.

“What happens in Afghanistan after you leave?” Doval asked him, to which McMaster reminded the Indian NSA that Trump had approved the South Asia strategy last August and that it was the first reasoned and sustainable strategy in 17 years of war.

"Doval knew this, but sometimes you cannot be fully candid with even your closest foreign counterparts. In fact, I shared Doval’s concern, and I knew that my response was less than convincing. Trump was unconventional and impulsive. Sometimes his impulses were good. Other times, to use one of his turns of phrase, 'not so much',” the American general writes.

McMaster in his book gives a detailed account of his trip to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India from April 14–17, 2017, during which he met then Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, Doval and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

The conversation was easy, as Doval, Jaishankar, "and I believed we had a tremendous opportunity to work together in pursuit of our mutual objectives”, McMaster writes about his meeting at the Janpath residence of Doval. Jaishankar then was the Foreign Secretary and late Sushma Swaraj was the External Affairs Minister.

“We spoke about the war in Afghanistan and the threat to India from nuclear-armed Pakistan, but Jaishankar and Doval spoke mainly about an increasingly aggressive China. The two men were open to unprecedented cooperation thanks to Xi Jinping’s aggression. The deepening partnership between the world’s largest and the world’s oldest democracies seemed logical, but India is fearful both of entrapment into competitions from which it would prefer to abstain and abandonment based on the short American attention span and ambivalence over South Asia,” McMaster writes.

“Those 'schizophrenic' anxieties and the legacy of India’s leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War had led to hedging behaviour, especially with Russia, an important source of arms and oil for India,” he states.

On the final day of his trip, he met Modi at his residence.

“Modi gave us a warm welcome. It was clear that deepening and expanding our relationship was a top priority for him. He expressed concern over China’s increasingly aggressive efforts to extend its influence at India’s expense and over its growing military presence in the region,” the former NSA writes.

Modi, McMaster says, suggested that the US, India, Japan, and like-minded partners emphasise the concept of a free and open Indo-Pacific as an inclusive effort to benefit all, in contrast to China’s 'One Belt One Road' initiative.

At the end of the meeting, he says, the prime minister gave him a hug, put his hands on his shoulders, and blessed him. “You have an aura around you, and you will do good for humanity,” Modi told him.

A few months later Trump hosted Modi for a meeting at the White House on June 25-26, 2017.

“We huddled in the Oval Office for a few moments between the meeting with Modi’s delegation in the Cabinet Room and the statements and question-and-answer session in the Rose Garden. I warned Trump that the prime minister was a hugger and, based on how well the visit was going, would probably hug Trump after their statements,” McMaster writes.

“Although Trump was known to hug the occasional American flag onstage, he was not a big hugger of people. The hug was delivered and reciprocated in a way that was not too awkward. Success. Modi departed on June 27, just two days before Moon’s arrival,” he says.

Modi was the first head of state the president and First Lady hosted for dinner in the Blue Room, he noted.