Opinion Express view: India is better prepared to engage with America First

In his remarks in London last week, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar suggested that US President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy is something Delhi could work with. At the root of Jaishankar’s optimism is the fact that under Trump, America focuses on self-interest rather than the pursuit of global leadership. Although India’s post-Independence elites fully shared the values of liberal internationalism, they were never comfortable with Washington’s claim to be its self-appointed champion. Representing a newly sovereign state with a strong commitment to choose its own path, the Indian elites rejected the idea of the US acting as the judge of other nations, assessing their democratic credentials, and punishing them for deviating from the presumed standards of liberal internationalism. If the Indian left was traditionally the most vocal in denouncing American meddling in the affairs of other nations, today it is the right that makes that case most loudly. Delhi, which was unsettled by the Biden Administration’s support to anti-Modi groups in India and its support for ousting Sheikh Hasina from power in Dhaka, is pleased that Trump is not looking to use American power to promote internal change in other societies.

India also welcomes Trump’s departure from the idea of a unipolar world dominated by the US to a recognition that today there are many consequential powers, constituting the so-called “multipolar world” that Delhi has long preferred. Washington’s allies in Europe and Asia that have long relied on the US for their security are shocked by Trump’s demand that either they contribute more to collective defence or forego American protection. India’s strategic partnership with the US, in contrast, is not one-sided but based on shared interests. As a non-ally with independent foreign policy, Delhi is much better prepared to engage with America First, based on give and take.

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For India, a transactional engagement with America comes amid Trump’s plans to rearrange the global order. What Trump and his team have in mind is nothing short of restructuring modern capitalism that emerged out of the 1929 global economic crisis and remaking the post-war international system led by the US. There is a strategic premium on getting this right for major countries like India. Delhi has begun the engagement with Trump on a sensible note with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the White House last month. At the core of the new understandings between Modi and Trump is the agreement to negotiate a free trade treaty. But negotiations with the Trump Administration are not pretty. Delhi will have to hold its nerve and focus on securing its interests and avoid being distracted by comments at the highest level in Washington. The prickly egotism of the Indian political class, the temptation to sacrifice national interests in the name of ideology, and a tendency to posture rather than seek concrete outcomes in external negotiations, are hurdles that will need to be sidestepped. The Modi government’s capacity to turn the Trump challenge into an opportunity to revitalise India’s trade policy — a long overdue task — will significantly improve if it takes the Indian public into confidence on the trade negotiations with the US and makes the political case for a new relationship with America.