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NEW DELHI: The US-India relationship is at its lowest point in three decades because of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy, Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna said on Monday, accusing the US President of eroding trust between the two countries during an address at the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum Leadership Summit in Washington.Khanna, a Democratic Congressman from California and a presumptive 2028 presidential hopeful, said Trump’s approach towards Iran and other foreign policy decisions had damaged America’s standing globally and strained ties with India. He also criticised the administration’s immigration and student visa policies, arguing that they undermined the United States’ ability to attract global talent.“The US-India relationship has been at its lowest point in the last 30 years,” Khanna said. “Trump’s policies of getting into a war with Iran have been utterly destructive. It has been utterly destructive to the prices of gas in India. Talk to (external affairs minister S) Jaishankar if you don’t believe me.”Referring to a recent visit to China, Khanna claimed an Indian diplomat had expressed concerns over the long-term impact of Trump’s policies on bilateral ties.“I was in China, and the Indian Ambassador there told me that a generation of trust has been lost by President Trump. If we don’t speak the truth about the damage this President has done…we are not living in reality,” Khanna said.He accused Trump of abandoning America’s traditional global leadership and pursuing a foreign policy driven by coercion rather than values.“Now you have an America that has forgotten that moral vision, that has a foreign policy of might makes right, threatening not just Iran, threatening Cuba, threatening to conquer Greenland, and we were having dinner as if everything is normal,” Khanna said.Questioning the value of strategic partnerships under the current administration, he added: “Who cares about the partnerships of this and that when this President is literally destroying America’s leadership in the entire world?”Khanna also attacked Trump’s stance on immigration and international students, arguing that the policies were harming America’s innovation ecosystem.“The demagoguery about immigrants, the demagoguery of this President and talking about the lack of immigrants coming into the United States. How can we sit here and not condemn his policies on what he has done with student visas, with the demonisation of talent coming to the United States,” he said.Highlighting the importance of attracting skilled professionals, Khanna said the administration’s approach contradicted its ambitions to lead in artificial intelligence.“38 per cent of the top AI researchers are of Chinese origin. 72 per cent have foreign degrees. This is a President who doesn’t understand that we need to be recruiting talent, not turning talent away,” he said.Khanna also described Trump as a “lame duck” and expressed confidence that the Democratic Party would win both the upcoming US mid-term elections and the 2028 presidential election decisively.
