Advertisement

Trump or Harris: whoever wins, India expects a more isolationist US

The United States’ prior ‘dominance and generosity’ may be a thing of the past, says India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar

Reading Time:1 minute
Why you can trust SCMP
Indian’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar (left) and New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters listen to Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong during a panel discussion in Canberra on Wednesday. Photo: AFP
The United States is likely to become more isolationist regardless of who becomes its next president, India’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Advertisement

Speaking at an event in Canberra as Americans were still casting votes, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the election was unlikely to reverse what he called he called a long-term trend in US policy.

“Probably starting from [President Barack] Obama the US has become much more cautious about its global commitments,” he said, pointing to a US reluctance to deploy troops and its withdrawal from Afghanistan under President Joe Biden.
“President Trump may be more articulate and expressive in that regard,” he said during a panel discussion with the foreign ministers of Australia and New Zealand.
The kind of dominance and generosity which the US had in the early days may not continue
India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar

But, he added, “it’s important to look at the US more nationally than purely in terms of the ideology of the administration of the day.”

Advertisement
Advertisement