Trump’s Return Has Unnerved World Leaders. But Not India.

Last updated: January 19, 2025 4:15 am

3 Min Read

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An upward trajectory in relations is “almost inevitable,” the U.S. ambassador, Eric Garcetti, said in an interview before leaving his post.

Cutouts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Donald J. Trump in Ahmedabad, India, ahead of Mr. Trump’s presidential visit in February 2020. Credit… Atul Loke for The New York Times Jan. 18, 2025

Over the past year, a pair of legal bombshells have put India’s growing relationship with the United States to one of its biggest tests yet.

Just as the two sides were announcing unprecedented expansions in defense and technology ties, U.S. prosecutors accused Indian government agents of plotting to assassinate an American citizen on U.S. soil.

Months later, the Justice Department filed fraud and bribery charges against India’s most prominent business mogul, whose enterprises have soared to dizzying heights on the back of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s power.

Still, the relationship has held. After decades of mutual suspicion between the two countries, said Eric Garcetti, the departing U.S. ambassador to India, the fact that now nothing seems to derail their ties is proof of their strength.

“I don’t think there is anything out there big enough to threaten the trajectory of the U.S.-India relations,” Mr. Garcetti said on Saturday in an interview at the embassy in New Delhi, two days before President Biden leaves office and Donald J. Trump is sworn in as his successor.

“This is incredibly resilient and almost inevitable,” Mr. Garcetti added. “It’s really the pace and the progress that’s not inevitable, like how quickly we get there.”

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