Many countries and governments are nervous about the change in leadership in the US with Donald Trump coming to power, but India is not among them, says External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. He said India is unaffected by Donald Trump who the 2024 US Presidential Election by a huge margin.
Trump will step into the White House as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, 2025. The former US President secured 295 electoral votes, while Kamala Harris won 226. It was a shocking defeat for the Democrats, who were very confident of winning the Presidential Election by a landslide.
Speaking at the Aditya Birla 25th silver jubilee scholarship programme in Mumbai, Jaishankar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi developed strong ties with several US Presidents—Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden. He highlighted that this is natural in terms of how PM Modi’s forges relationships.
It should be noted that Modi was among the first three world leaders to congratulate US President-elect Donald Trump last week in a high-stakes election. The Indian prime minister said he is looking forward to renewing their collaboration to further strengthen the India-US partnership. Modi also urged Trump to promote global peace, stability, and prosperity, highlighting Israel’s war in Gaza and the Russia-Ukraine war.
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Rocky Relationship Lies Ahead for India and US
However, Biswajit Dhar, a distinguished professor at the Council for Social Development – New Delhi, says India-US relations could get strained if Donald Trump’s election promises are implemented. He believes PM Modi’s personal bonhomie with Trump could help New Delhi navigate their ties ahead.
Dhar believes India could be hit hard because the US is its largest market. He highlighted that Donald Trump, during his first term, was in a protectionist mode, and he will come (for the second non-consecutive term) knowing he got a mandate for the same policies.
Michael Kugelman, director of Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute, said underlying tensions between the US and India because of the imbalance in their trade have largely stayed under wraps for the last four years under the Biden administration. He pointed out that tensions could surface and explode in the new Trump administration.
And there’s also the issue of immigration. A senior Indian diplomat Anil Trigunayat believes India in the near future will be hit hard by an unlikely reality. He said the US is trying to grow more isolationist while New Delhi is trying to grow more globally cooperative. There will be a clash.
