Shopkeepers Get Customers Not Friends or Allies : Need To Re Evaluate The Current US / Western Coercive Approach To International Diplomacy .
Rajiv Upadhyay 
Ever since President Trump has begun his second term in office , there has hardly been a quiet day . From the silent behind the scene manoeuvres , diplomacy has now become a grand opera with a ticket .
In the beginning world leaders lined up at White House to get a favourable deal. But after Qatar’s gift of a 400 million dollar Boeing Plane, the world leaders got cautious and South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa publicly expressed in White House with full media in attendance , his inability to match Qatar’s gift .
After this many countries started getting cold about ‘ Making a Deal ‘ at the cost of national dignity . French president Macron was amongst the first. But the cake must go to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney who really showed his class at Davos by his sentence ‘ If you are not at table , you are on the menu ‘ . In one stroke he told the world that in Trump era old rule based world order is gone .
India had tried very hard to be in Trump’s right side and our MEA Jai Shankar spent many days in Washington before swearing in . But Trump 2 was different . It had no regards for Indian interests . PM Modi first went to Washington but finally decided protect the Indian interests particularly regarding buying oil , fertilisers , coal and steel from Russia on discounted rates. India like Canada faced USA’s highest tariff of fifty percent because of not abandoning Russia in difficult times.
Slowly even the closest American ally , United Kingdom too got disenchanted and moved away and started developing alternative to VISA
There were no friends but only ruthless pursuit of deemed American interests . But the threat to annex Greenland and merger of Canada in USA was the limit . Therefore when Trump invaded Iran without consulting NATO member countries, they refused to join the war . It was a unique first exposing the total global isolation of USA . Virtual failure of USA in changing the regime in Iran or bringing it on knees ended the sole super power status of USA .
But as far as India is concerned West has not left its colonial mindset . During a recent visit to Pakistan, EU’s foreign minister Kaja Kallas, unnecessarily brought in the Kashmir issue in joint press conference . Similarly USA blackmailed us on Gurupatwant Singh Pannu affair as did Canada on Nijjar case . They interfere and talk of regime change with impunity in developing world including India but want to protect every citizen of theirs .
What Trump has to realise that if America is a shopkeeper selling its economic leverage it can get nations as customers not allies . In contrast India repaid Russia’s assistance In Bangladesh war by standing with it in its time of greatest need . This is called alliance not a transactional relationship.
If Europe wants to protect its sovereignty and economy , it must get out of its colonial mindset and work on long term alliances as equals with countries like India etc. keeping in mind their culture and sensitivities .
Shopkeepers get customers not friends or allies !
