The changes in the web of international relations brought about by the new president could present India with the chance to take on a new leadership role.
In India, public support during the American election campaign have been overwhelmingly in favour of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. This also holds true for the majority of the 3.3 million Indian Americans. Altogether five Indian Americans – the highest number ever – have been elected into both houses of Parliament, all Democrats. The Indian government, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular, will be pragmatic in their approach to this new situation.
The USA is India’s leading foreign trade partner. Former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal predicts that the current dynamic of bilateral relations will slow down in the immediate future. India will have to learn about the new personnel, who will be largely unknown. Nirupuma Rao, a former Foreign Secretary and ambassador to Washington, noted that “the American President-elect is generally not acquainted with the salient details of the India-U.S. strategic partnership.”
Geopolitical implications of the Trump Presidency
Substantial geopolitical changes are expected under Donald Trump, who, in his political style and some of his opinions, is quite similar to Narendra Modi. From an Indian perspective much will depend upon his relationship with China, particularly in view of the sharpening differences between India and China.
Since Trump is against the ‘US pivot to Asia’, this would permit China to assert itself more in the western Pacific and allow it to expand faster into the Indian Ocean. This would be contrary to the strategic vision built with Obama for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions, which was supposed to counter Chinese muscle-flexing.
If this does happen, India must either try to influence the expected American strategy or to fill the expected vacuum. C. Raja Mohan, director at Carnegie India, has pointed out that Trump’s election presents a rare opportunity for Delhi to expand its own influence and agency in the Eurasian region, rather than being the ‘lynchpin’ of the US pivot to Asia, and indeed become a leader in its own right.
Improved relations with Russia under Trump are seen in India as another good opportunity, in that Russia will lean less towards China and cooperate less with Pakistan, creating changes in the Middle East that could benefit India. Here a coordinated partnership between India, the EU and Britain could be envisaged.
A statement from former Ambassador Rao was telling: “Trump came across during the campaign as having a much more rational and less prejudiced approach to the situation in Syria and Russian involvement in the region, and it is hoped that his advent to office will see more collaborative, well-reasoned policy approaches and dialogue with Moscow to defeat the Islamic State instead of just pursuing the prospects of regime change in Damascus.”
Others have suggested that Trump’s election could have indirect implications for Pakistan, in that Trump could pull Putin away from Chinese premier Xi Jinping, and thereby ruin Pakistani ideas of a Beijing-Moscow-Islamabad axis.
Economic implications
The prospect of protectionist policies being put in place by Trump are only partly seen as directed against India. It has been noted that India is not necessarily ready for major free-trade agreements, and that the country could benefit geopolitically from the negative economic effects that American protectionism could have on China. That said, if Trump does start to fine outsourcing companies, as he has said he would, this could have a negative effect on the Indian IT industry.
According to Shyam Saran, a former Foreign Secretary and architect of the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, the strategic community in India is confident that in view of the consensus about good bilateral relations and a “strengthening of the strategic relations with India”, no negative tendencies are to be expected with the new administration.
There is are similarities between the Hindu-nationalist NDA-government’s economic and social policies and what can be expected from Trump. Therefore it is to be expected that in India there will be less criticism of Trump’s domestic politics and a greater focus on his future foreign policy.
XThis website uses cookies. Some cookies are necessary for the proper functioning of the website and cannot be refused if you wish to visit the website.
Other cookies are used for Advertisement and Analytics (Sharing on social networks, video playing, analysis and statistics, personalized advertising ...) You can refuse them if you want to. REJECTACCEPTCookie settings
Manage consent
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement
1 year
Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category .
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
csrftoken
past
This cookie is associated with Django web development platform for python. Used to help protect the website against Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks
JSESSIONID
session
The JSESSIONID cookie is used by New Relic to store a session identifier so that New Relic can monitor session counts for an application.
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Cookie
Duration
Description
__cf_bm
30 minutes
This cookie, set by Cloudflare, is used to support Cloudflare Bot Management.
S
1 hour
Used by Yahoo to provide ads, content or analytics.
sp_landing
1 day
The sp_landing is set by Spotify to implement audio content from Spotify on the website and also registers information on user interaction related to the audio content.
sp_t
1 year
The sp_t cookie is set by Spotify to implement audio content from Spotify on the website and also registers information on user interaction related to the audio content.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Cookie
Duration
Description
CONSENT
2 years
YouTube sets this cookie via embedded youtube-videos and registers anonymous statistical data.
iutk
session
This cookie is used by Issuu analytic system to gather information regarding visitor activity on Issuu products.
s_vi
2 years
An Adobe Analytics cookie that uses a unique visitor ID time/date stamp to identify a unique vistor to the website.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Cookie
Duration
Description
NID
6 months
NID cookie, set by Google, is used for advertising purposes; to limit the number of times the user sees an ad, to mute unwanted ads, and to measure the effectiveness of ads.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
5 months 27 days
A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface.
YSC
session
YSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages.
yt-remote-connected-devices
never
YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
yt-remote-device-id
never
YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
yt.innertube::nextId
never
This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.
yt.innertube::requests
never
This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.