WASHINGTON: Even as the focus is understandably on the new occupant of White House, an equally important change has happened on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue in the composition of the US Congress on Capitol Hill. And along with the decisions of the US executive, the views and motivations of key actors in the US legislature will shape bilateral ties with India.
First take the House. Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana and a Trump confidante, will remain Speaker, while Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, will remain the minority leader. But the real foreign policy action happens in the committees. The new House Foreign Affairs Committee chair is Brian Mast, a 44-year old veteran who lost both his legs and left index finger in an explosion in the war in Afghanistan. The ranking member on the committee will continue to be Gregory Meeks, a senior Democratic figure from New York who has good ties with India and an interest in building on the Mahatma Gandhi-Martin Luther King Jr legacy.
Mast, a Florida representative and Trump confidante, comes to the job with ruthless clarity of what his job entails. At a think tank event in DC last week, asked about the priorities he would bring to the job, Mast says the overall goal is judging every dollar and every diplomat on the metric of how it served American interests.
“Every single time I have a foreign delegation or a diplomat or an ambassador in my office, I have three questions on a board. Question one is what does America need from each country and the region? Question number two is what does that country or region want from the United States of America? And question three is does what America is providing get America what it needs? And if it doesn’t, we somehow spoke past each other. We didn’t have the conversation we needed to have. Or in part, we are being played for suckers. And I won’t speak for President Trump but he doesn’t believe in America being played for a sucker,” Mast said
But another shift that has happened in HFAC is the split of the Indo-Pacific subcommittee into the East Asia/Pacific subcommittee and the South and Central Asia subcommittee. The SCA subcommittee, which will deal with India, will be chaired by Bill Huizenga, a Republican from Michigan, and the ranking member of the subcommittee, will be Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a Democratic representative from California. Asked whether this split represented a dilution of the commitment to working on Indo-Pacific as a whole, people familiar with the decision said that it was born out of a desire to be consistent with how the State Department’s bureaus are structured.
A new “America First” US Congress awaits India
India will also have to closely engage with the House Armed Services Committee, where Mike Rogers, a Republican from Alabama, serves as chair, and Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington state, is the ranking member.
On the Senate side, India will have to deepen ties with John Thune, the new majority leader, as well as sustain with Chuck Schumer, the minority leader.
The big shift has happened in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee where Jim Risch, an Idaho Republican, has taken over as the chair. Risch is broadly supportive of the strategic relationship with India, but has concerns about India’s ties with Russia as well as issues regarding Christian rights and churches in India that will need to be managed. The ranking member is Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, who has had concerns about Indian democracy and the alleged assassination plot in New York. On the Senate Armed Services Committee side, India will need to deepen ties with Roger Wickers, Senator from Mississippi, while maintaining ties with Jack Reed, the ranking member.
Put it together and Indian diplomats in DC have their plates full as they revive old relationships and build new ones on Capitol Hill in a bid to align an America First Congress with an India First diplomatic mandate.