Trump, Modi hand-in-hand on border security at US rally

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump endorsed India’s need for “border security” at a rock concert-like event in Houston with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government seeks to expand its control of the disputed territory of Kashmir.
Sharing a stage in Houston and later walking hand-in-hand around a football stadium, Trump received Modi’s endorsement in front of more than 50,000 Indian Americans — an influential voter base.
Modi used Sunday’s event to rally his supporters, show off his closeness with the US president and take aim at India’s rivals, which notably include Pakistan.
In a speech that risks being viewed as siding with India in its dispute with Pakistan, Trump pledged expanded military cooperation with India, talked about the need to fight terrorism — language Modi echoed soon after in an apparent swipe at Pakistan — and called for more border security, drawing huge cheers from the raucous crowd.
“Border security is vital to the United States. Border security is vital to India, we understand that,” Trump said.
He pledged to fight “terrorism” and insisted: “We must protect our borders.”
Kashmir Tensions
While Trump didn’t explicitly endorse Modi’s moves in Kashmir, which have inflamed tensions with neighboring Pakistan, his remarks could be interpreted in Islamabad as signaling US support.
Modi in August scrapped seven decades of autonomy in the Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir, prompting Pakistan to downgrade diplomatic and trade ties with India.
Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said that India ultimately expects to rule over the entire state of Kashmir.
Modi told the crowd, “People have put their hatred of India at the center of their political agenda. These are people who want unrest. These are people who support terrorism and nurture terrorism.”
Without naming a country, Modi rhetorically asked who was responsible for the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai and the 2001 attacks in the US. “You know them, very well,” Modi said. “You know who they are. It’s not just you, the whole world knows who they are.”
The Mumbai attackers were Pakistanis, while several key figures in the September 11 attacks, including Osama bin Laden, were killed or captured in Pakistan.
Trump’s remarks followed a speech by Modi in which he lavishly praised the US president, echoing Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan, saying that “he has already made the American economy strong again.”
Indians form about a fifth of 20 million Asian Americans and are often more educated and earn more than other immigrant groups, the Washington-based Pew Research Center found. About 65 percent of Indian Americans were Democrats or leaned towards the Democrats, according to a 2014 Pew Research paper.