Pompeo faces thorny issues on India visit from trade to Russia arms deals

NEW DELHI: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will tackle a host of delicate issues when he gets into New Delhi on Tuesday for talks with Indian leaders, from trade to India’s long standing defense and energy ties to Russia and Iran.

Relations between the United States and India have dramatically improved since the days of the Cold War but they have still fallen short of their promise and now have run into serious problems over tariffs, flow of data and tighter Indian rules on online commerce in one of the world’s fastest growing large markets.

Pompeo will kick off his visit calling on Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was re-elected for a second term last month with a powerful mandate that analysts say gives him the chance to take bold reforms to propel Asia’s third largest economy to faster growth. Just ahead of his visit, India imposed tariffs on some U.S. goods after President Donald Trump’s administration threw India out of a group of countries that were allowed duty free access for some of their products into the large U.S. market. While trade issues are led by the US Trade Representative’s office and the commerce departments, Pompeo is expected to raise some of the concerns US companies have about new rules on local storage of data as well as restrictions on foreign companies’ online operations in India.

“We expect trade and ecommerce to figure in the meetings with the PM and the foreign minister, we are ready to engage them on data issues,” said an Indian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity.