Pompeo meets Indian leaders amid rising trade tensions

NEW DELHI - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Indian counterpart downplayed growing disagreements over trade and tariffs on Wednesday, arguing that the two nations can work through the issues.

Pompeo held meetings in India's capital with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and later with Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar amid growing tensions over trade that have strained bilateral ties.

He acknowledged that the two countries have some differences.

"Great friends are bound to have disagreements," Pompeo told reporters after meeting with Jaishankar. "The United States has been clear we seek greater market access and the removal of trade barriers."

Jaishankar said there was a "need to filter through the noise and get down to the basics of the relationship".

Pompeo arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday after visiting Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan on a trip aimed at building a global coalition to counter Iran.

His visit is the first high-level engagement between the two countries since Modi's reelection last month. The two countries call each other a strategic partner despite retaliatory tariffs they imposed on some of the other's goods this month.

India imposed tariffs on 28 US products including walnuts and almonds on June 16 in retaliation for the US ending India's preferential trade status on June 1. The US imposed higher duties on products including aluminum and steel.

The visit also came ahead of the scheduled meeting between US President Donald Trump and Modi during a G20 summit in Japan this week.

The US is also irked by what it sees as a growing thicket of Indian bureaucracy for US companies such as Walmart, which last year invested $16 billion in Flipkart in a major bet on the local e-commerce market.

Other points of contention include Indian price caps on medical equipment and its insistence that personal data held by firms like MasterCard be stored within India.

This has reportedly led to US threats to cap H-1B visas, popular among Indian IT professionals, although US officials have denied this.

Russian missiles

Besides trade, a major bone of contention between the two countries is possible US sanctions over India's planned $5.2-billion purchase of the S-400 missile defense system from Russia.

Rising friction between the US and Iran have also affected India, with US waivers allowing New Delhi to buy Iranian oil having expired in May. India's economy is highly reliant on crude imports.

Eliot Engel, a Democrat who heads the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, said recent US actions were at odds with Trump's promises that he would be a "true friend" to India.

Washington needs to show a "predictable, coherent, and consistent strategy," Engel told Pompeo in a letter, and to counter a growing view that it is seeking to "coerce" India.

AP - AFP