The meeting last month of President Trump and Narendra Modi in India may have made more headlines for the small amount of trade progress there was, but there is still an opportunity for communication between the nations to make a difference in larger foreign policy.
"There's a lot the U.S. could learn from India about dealing with Iran," said Raj Bhala, Brenneisen Distinguished Professor of Law at KU and a Senior Advisor at Dentons. "India is one of the few countries that enjoys very warm relations with both Tehran and Washington. India's a more prominent country to be an intermediary than Algeria or Oman, which have been traditional intermediaries in the past."
The U.S. and India are not in the same place they have always been on the world stage.
"This is an evolving relationship," Bhala said. "It is getting closer. It's getting warmer, but it is evolving, at sometimes a frustratingly slow pace for reasons on both sides, domestic, political, economic and historical."
Part of the issue is India's reluctance to pick a winner in trade conflicts, as they want to keep warm relations with as many nations as possible.
"It may not go as fast as it could and it ought to, but it is evolving positively," Bhala said. "Both sides are enormously good assets for each other, if things continue to go well."
President Trump's visit was the seventh by a U.S. leader while in office.