OPINION:
China, India and Russia aren’t natural allies, but President Biden’s toxic foreign policy drove them together. The West’s attempt to isolate Russia over its extracurricular activities in Ukraine hasn’t gone as planned, and global stability is the casualty.
The only lesson Vladimir Putin learned from democracies severing all financial ties was the benefit of cozying up to China and North Korea. Rather than crippling Russia’s economy, the ruble is worth just about what it was before the invasion.
India realized it could take advantage of Moscow’s need to diversify trade partners. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met with the Russian strongman at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit this month. They posed for pictures, conveying a unified front against President Trump’s “America First” moves.
If the 3 billion members of this eastern alliance entirely ditch greenbacks for the yuan or ruble when making international deals, that would deliver a massive blow to our status as the world’s reserve currency.
New Delhi’s growing appetite for Moscow’s oil is another source of discontent. After the Ukraine sanctions kicked in, India boosted crude imports sixfold to lock in Mr. Putin’s deep discounts. The White House isn’t happy about it.
“Before the Russian conflict, the Indians bought less than 2% of their oil from Russia, and now they’re buying 40% of their oil from Russia,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Bloomberg TV. “The Indians have just decided, ‘Aw, the heck with it. Let’s buy it cheap and make a ton of money.’ … They need to decide which side they want to be on.”
The administration is looking for leverage to persuade Mr. Modi to change his ways. One suggestion is to suspend issuance of H-1B immigration visas for Indian technology workers. According to Pew Research, out of the 400,000 visas approved last year, nearly 3 out of 4 recipients hailed from India.
Technology companies love this source of cheap, indentured servants who can’t leave or quit without risking ejection from the country. As these massive corporations gobble up outsiders, they are also shedding their American workforce. In April, Intel eliminated 14,000 jobs. Meta fired 3,600 employees earlier this year.
It makes no sense to import 290,000 noncitizen programmers when plenty of Americans would fill those positions if given the opportunity. Too often, the visa holders’ loyalty remains in their homeland, considering the staggering sums they send back to India.
India receives $137 billion in remittances each year, almost double what Mexico collects. Mr. Trump ought to discourage the practice with a larger tax on these transactions. The president sees little downside in flexing U.S. muscles to encourage an attitude adjustment as he negotiates with Mr. Modi on trade.
“What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us. In other words, they sell us massive amounts of goods, their biggest ‘client,’ but we sell them very little — until now a totally one-sided relationship, and it has been for many decades,” Mr. Trump explained on Truth Social.
Taking note, Sen. Bernie Moreno, Ohio Republican, just introduced the Halting International Relocation of Employment Act, which would impose a 25% tax on money U.S. companies pay to outsource work overseas. That would be bad news for the call centers in Bangalore.
A smart foreign policy doesn’t allow other nations to take our friendship for granted.
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