Donald Trump, US President-elect

Donald Trump’s comeback to the White House on Wednesday could present strengthening signs for his “great partnership” with India, or might have produced another complication across the Atlantic ocean.

During the President-elect’s earlier stint as the US president, he took the resurgent relations with New Delhi further, elevating India in US geopolitical strategy as a bulwark against China.

He revived the Quad, the four-state group that besides India and the US, also includes Japan and Australia.

External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar reminded everyone during an event in Canberra on Tuesday that, “In terms of the Quad, it was revived under a Trump presidency in 2017. It was then moved from the level of a permanent secretary to a minister, also during the Trump presidency”.

While Trump can be expected to be interested in military cooperation, defence manufacturing in India would put PM Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ policy on a possible collision course with the Republican President-elect’s ‘Buy American, Hire American’ stance.

That will also be a factor in other areas like silicon chips and solar panels as India is on course to its identity as a global manufacturing hub.

Like manufacturing, trade will be an area of conflict for India and the US under Trump. He has threatened stiff tariffs on imports, especially as retribution for high tariffs imposed by other countries.

During his earlier term, Trump singled out the customs duties on Harley motorcycles and cancelled the Generalised Scheme of Preferences concessions for some imports from India.

In a recent campaign speech, he emphasised that India was among the countries that take advantage of the US and was a “very big abuser” in trade.

At his time at the oval office, Trump also intended to intervene between India and Pakistan. However, the tryst fell off as the two countries agreed that their disputes were bilateral matters, that are to be dealt with without any third-party involvement.

Interestingly, Trump has warned of a purge of the Justice Department and its agencies, given their pursuit of him. That could affect the future course of the alleged murder-for-hire plot against a former RAW officer Vikash Yadav.

(With inputs from syndicated feed)