The secret of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s early visit to Washington DC lies with two central protagonists and in four visits.
The central characters in this saga are Michael Waltz and S Jaishankar. And the plot begins with Waltz’s visit to Delhi in August 2023, and Jaishankar’s three visits to Washington DC in the last five months. Together, it is a saga of providence, astute diplomatic investment, political signalling, and confident engagement.
The Waltz connectionOn the occasion of the completion of the celebrations of 75 years of Independence, the Indian government invited a special Congressional delegation of members of the House India caucus, led by Congressman Waltz, then a Republican representative from Florida, and Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative from California.
Waltz was not particularly well-known, but Indian diplomats of the time had done well in identifying him as a rising star in the Republican Party. He was a veteran of the Afghanistan war, furious with the manner of US withdrawal from Kabul but also now instinctively trained to spot Pakistani duplicity. His wife, Julia Nesheiwat, had served as Trump’s homeland security advisor in the final year of his first term.
On the morning of Independence Day, Waltz made the trek to Red Fort to listen to Modi in the sun, as the PM acknowledged the presence of his delegation. After the event, Waltz said, “It was an amazing honour to be there. This was where [Jawaharlal] Nehru famously raised the tricolour on Indian Independence Day on August 15th. And to stand there, in front of the Red Fort, to see Modi give his address to his nation was an amazing honour. And I thought it was also incredible to hear him lay out a vision for India be a fully developed nation by 2047, the 100th year anniversary and his plan to achieve that.”
The fact that Waltz knew India, had met Indian leaders, had been accorded Indian hospitality, and recognised India’s role in the region both because of Pakistan and China had clearly helped in ensuring he had a positive view of the relationship.
When Waltz got a prime time speaking slot at the Republican Convention last year — where he spoke about taking the families of those US soldiers who died during the withdrawal from Kabul to meet Trump — it was clear that he was destined for bigger things if Republicans won. And when Trump won, he appointed Waltz as his National Security Advisor (NSA). Trump, incidentally, has also appointed Waltz’s sister-in-law Janette Nesheiwat as US’s surgeon general — making Waltz, his wife and his wife’s sister as the only trio from a family to be in charge of US national security, homeland security and health.
But for India, what mattered was someone they knew and someone who knew Delhi was in the hot seat at a time when the national security council (NSC) has really emerged as the decisive pillar of American foreign policy machine, with State playing a secondary role.
The Jaishankar triple pushBut having a friend in the right place is never enough. Perhaps aware that India had left a diplomatic vacuum for much of the past year in DC, Jaishankar visited the US capital after his annual run at the UN with an intent to build political bridges.
And he met a key associate of Trump, the president’s last NSA, Robert O’Brien, another ally of India who had helped during Trump’s visit to Ahmedabad, during Galwan, and who India had kept in touch with.
O’Brien eventually did not join the administration but he continues to exercise influence in the Trump world, Waltz consults him, and O’Brien’s staffers in the last NSC — from Ricky Gill who is now in charge of India desk at NSC to Kash Patel who is Trump’s pick for FBI director — have found prime spots in the new team. Jaishankar’s visit to DC helped in restarting channels of communication with Trump’s national security world.
Fast forward to the end of December where Jaishankar visited DC again, this time to establish early communication with Trump’s operatives. It does seem that due to Christmas and the Senate confirmation process, many of Trump’s top cabinet picks were not in a position to publicly meet the minister. But Waltz, whose job does not require a confirmation, met Jaishankar.
They clearly were aligned on China, on deepening bilateral ties, and on technology and supply chains as pillars of the new relationship. This is also where the idea of holding a Quad Summit and an early visit by Modi first took roots. It helped that Joe Biden’s NSA Jake Sullivan, a strong ally of India, was working closely with Waltz during the transition and had briefed him about all that the administration had done to deepen ties with India. It was striking that at a public event titled “Passing the Baton”, both the outgoing and incoming NSA agreed on India. Waltz spoke fondly of his role as the India caucus co-chair, Sullivan joked about starting an India caucus for spouses of Congressional reps (his wife has just got elected to the House).
Three weeks later, Jaishankar was back to attend the inauguration. He became the first foreign minister to meet the new Secretary of State Rubio; Rubio’s first diplomatic engagement was a meeting of Quad foreign ministers; Jaishankar again met Waltz, their second meeting in less than a month; and other Indian diplomats began cultivating new NSC staffers.
India was keen on an early meeting between the two principals, to talk about issues such as trade and immigration that could potentially lead to discord, to get a sense of the broad outlook of the new administration on China, Ukraine and West Asia, to preserve the technology and defence partnership and Quad, to prepare for the disruptions that are in motion and on way, and for the public optics of bonhomie that always work well back home. Trump was game and it was a go.
Energetic and enterprising Indian diplomacy, with more than a willing American partner, had succeeded in making Modi among the first set of leaders Trump will host in White House in his first month. Getting the right results, in terms of both trust building and the concrete deliverables, is the real test now.