China just hit a big bump in that silk road
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/07/21/big-winning-report-india-and-u-s-close-to-final-trade-agreement/
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Trump already sealed their component. Now it appears India and the U.S. have reached terms.
India has always been a key strategic nation within the global trade-realignment taking place by the Trump administration. Underpinning the geopolitics, the “Indo-Pacific” strategy is structurally the decoupling of the U.S. from China.
As a part of the strategy President Trump positioned the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) as benefactors in manufacturing & trade as an outcome of the U.S. decoupling from China.
However, India had genuine concerns about the global dynamic. Specifically, India is worried about allowing the multinationals to have influence over their economy and social structure. In this regard India was not wrong; their concerns were not unfounded.
When Americans see it in other nations we call it “bribery and corruption”, but when it happens in Washington, DC, we call it “lobbying”; the process is exactly the same.