PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi Monday congratulated Donald J Trump on his “historic inauguration as the 47th President of the United States” and wished him a successful term ahead. No sooner did Trump take oath as the US President at the Capitol Hill’s rotunda than Prime Minister Modi tweeted: “I look forward to working closely together once again, to benefit both our countries, and to shape a better future for the world. Best wishes for a successful term ahead!” While India-US relations are on a strong footing, Delhi is concerned about two specific issues – tariffs and illegal immigration – that Trump flagged in his 29-minute inaugural speech. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was seated in the audience at Capitol Hill as the Special Envoy of the Prime Minister. This is his second visit to the US within the last 30 days; he had visited the US in the last week of December, and met the incoming Trump administration officials as part of an outreach from Delhi to Washington DC. “Privileged to represent as External Affairs Minister and Special Envoy of PM at the Swearing-In Ceremony of the 47th President of the United States of America today in Washington DC. Attended the Inauguration Day Prayer Service at St John’s Church this morning,” he tweeted Monday. In what was described earlier in the day by aides as a “shock and awe” start to his Presidency, Trump said “all illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.” While his rhetoric is aimed at those coming from Mexico to begin with, there is fear in Delhi it may include Indians too at some point who entered the US as illegal immigrants — either through Mexico in the south or the Canadian borders in the north. On tariffs, where India has been at the crosshairs, Trump said he will “immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families. Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.” India has been the target, apart from China, EU and other countries, and it has been referred to as “tariff king” and “abuser of tariffs” by Trump in the past. Talking up America as a country that would be “respected again all over the world”, Trump sought to cast himself as a “peacemaker”. “We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but by the wars we end and more importantly the wars we never get into,’’ he said. He took credit for the release of the hostages in the Middle East, a task achieved jointly with the Joe Biden administration. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both stood up and gave a standing ovation when he talked about the hostage deal between Israel and Hamas. Trump described himself as a bulwark against a world that has been “angry, violent, and totally unpredictable.” “Our golden age has just begun,” he declared to an applauding audience, who gave him a standing ovation several times during his almost half-an-hour speech, surrounded by family, friends, tech moguls and the Washington’s new political elite of MAGA Republicans. Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama were also present in the audience. Trump, in his trademark style, also named China by claiming that it controlled the Panama Canal — while a Hong Kong-based company manages some ports, while Panama controls the Panama Canal. Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, the Quad became the dominant theme of Jaishankar's meetings with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya in Washington DC on Sunday. While Jaishankar referenced Quad in public articulation about both meetings, Wong described Quad as “an iron-clad commitment” and the Japanese Foreign Ministry said discussions were held on “efforts by the Quad”. This assumes significance since Trump was instrumental in reviving the Quad grouping of India, Japan, Australia and the US in November 2017, on the sidelines of the ASEAN and East Asia summits in Manila, Philippines. This was aimed at forming a coalition of like-minded countries to challenge the growing assertive behaviour of China in the Indo-Pacific region. During his first term, Trump became the first US President to name China as a strategic threat and rival. There is an expectation that he will continue with his strategy towards China in the second term, considering that he has named China hawks as the US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor. Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio is known to be a China hawk. In July last year, he had introduced a Bill proposing that India be treated similarly to allies like Japan, Israel, South Korea and NATO partners in terms of technology transfers. Rubio had said China continues to aggressively expand its domain in the Indo-Pacific region and seeks to impede the sovereignty and autonomy of US regional partners. His Bill had said the US-India partnership is vital to countering influences from Communist China. It also advocates enhancing strategic, diplomatic, economic and military ties with New Delhi. Mike Waltz, set to be the next NSA, is also an India supporter. He is the head of the India caucus, and has advocated strengthening US defence and security cooperation with India. He has criticised China’s trade and economic practices and has long called for reduction of American dependence on China’s manufacturing, and strengthening US technology. The choice of key officials on foreign and national security policy is a window to the priorities of the Trump 2.0 administration. In his first administration, he had Mike Pompeo, the CIA Director who became Secretary of State, who was also tough on China.
