WASHINGTON: A group of three distinguished experts from a top American think-tank have called on the Donald Trump administration to establish an early connection with a "rising" India. The experts from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies – Kathleen H Hicks, DC Richard M Rossow and John Schaus wrote, "Establishing an early connection with a rising, and like-minded, India could be an early win for the Trump administration."
They stated, "It will take regular efforts from senior-level officials across government departments and agencies to bring India and the United States closer together. As Secretary Carter's trip to India highlights, both countries stand to benefit greatly from deeper engagement." The India-US defence relationship built over multiple administrations in both Washington and New Delhi has grown beautifully in the last three years, the study stated. "As President-elect Donald Trump and his national security team identify key priorities for his administration, continuing to strengthen US-India ties should be near the top of their agenda," the experts said.
They observed that the early outreach by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the United States signalled to both Washington and his own bureaucracy that he was serious about engagement. "Similarly, President-elect Trump could send an important early signal of his intent to cooperate closely with India by arranging a meeting with Prime Minister Modi in the first 100 days President Trump is in office." The CSIS experts asserted there were a wide range of issues to address and that the change in personnel that comes with a new administration, combined with typical turnover within India's government could lead both countries to "forget" the patterns of engagement and cooperation that have proved fruitful over the past two years.
Meanwhile, in a major reveal, American intelligence agencies have concluded with "high confidence" that Russia acted covertly in the latter stages of the US presidential campaign, to diminish Democratic party candidate Hillary Clinton's chances. The conclusion was based partly on another finding that the Russians hacked the Republican National Committee's computer systems in addition to their attacks on Democratic organisations.
Months before the election, documents from Democratic Party systems were leaked to the public. Intelligence agencies have concluded that the Russians gave the Democrats' documents to WikiLeaks. The Republican party, however has different explanations for why no documents from their networks were ever released. Officials from the Republican committee have maintained that their networks were not compromised, asserting that only the accounts of individual Republicans were attacked.
Trump's transition office released a statement in reflection of the deep divisions that emerged between his campaign and the intelligence agencies over Russian meddling in the election. "These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It's now time to move on and 'Make America Great Again'," the statement said. A senior government official who had been briefed on an FBI investigation into the matter said while attempts were made to penetrate the Republican committee's systems, they were not successful.
But, conclusions drawn by intelligence agencies differed as they derived hacking efforts were successful, and they were presented to US President Barack Obama and other senior officials. It remains unclear how many files were stolen from the RNC, and also remains shaded that fact whether Russia's original intent was to support Trump.
