Trump taps Marco Rubio & Michael Waltz, known to be pro-India and tough on China, for top jobs

Rubio and Waltz are known China hawks and have held pro-India views over the years.

Trump has also enlisted Robert Lighthizer, the architect of his trade wars in his first term, as the new US trade envoy.

In July this year, Rubio introduced a Bill proposing that India be treated similarly to allies like Japan, Israel, South Korea and NATO partners in terms of technology transfers.

The Bill aims to support India in addressing threats to its territorial integrity and seeks to block security assistance to Pakistan if it is found to sponsor terrorism against India.

Rubio has 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 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.

In September 2014, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington DC, Rubio had written an op-ed and had faulted the Barack Obama administration for neglecting the India-US ties.

Mike Waltz, who should be the next NSA, is also a major 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, and was also tough on China.

During his first term, Trump became the first US President to name China as a strategic threat and rival. He also revived the Quad grouping in 2017. This was continued and elevated by President Joe Biden. In his second innings, Trump is expected to continue with the strategic approach toward China.

He has also enlisted Robert Lighthizer, the architect of his trade wars during his first term, Financial Times reported last Saturday.

The likely reappointment of Lighthizer as US trade chief assumes significance as he was the United States Trade Representative when India lost its Generalized System of Preferences in 2019, which had benefited $5.7 billion worth of Indian exports to the US.

A staunch protectionist, Lighthizer was at the centre of Trump’s trade war against China and has, for decades, argued that the US erred in granting Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to China in the early 2000s, which led to a surge of imports into the US, causing manufacturing job losses. Lighthizer also played an instrumental role in breaking the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism by blocking the appointment of judges, thus helping the US avoid WTO scrutiny over tariffs.