Trump’s crude hypocrisy shows India’s energy security cannot rely on American goodwill

On January 4, 1980, after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, then US President Jimmy Carter embargoed 17 million tonnes of American grain sales to Moscow. It was the moral position. It was also ruinous for Iowa. On April 24, 1981, President Ronald Reagan, who had called the Soviet Union an evil empire in all but name, lifted the embargo to honour a campaign promise to farmers. The next year, Washington imposed sanctions on European companies supplying equipment for the Urengoy gas pipeline; and in 1983, signed a new long-term agreement to sell the Soviets more wheat. Europe’s leaders asked the…