- S. Jaishankar argued that Washington has become “more cautious” about its global commitments irrespective of who is in power
NEW DELHI (Agencies): India’s foreign minister projected that the US election is unlikely to alter the country’s increasingly cautious approach to “global commitments.” Speaking at an event in Australia on Wednesday while the vote count was still ongoing, S. Jaishankar suggested that “we should prepare for a world where the kind of dominance and generosity that the US had in early days may not continue to be the norm.”
Jaishankar noted that since the tenure of former US President Barack Obama, the US has become “significantly more cautious about its global commitments,” highlighting changes in its approach to deploying troops after the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, as well as current President Joe Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which Trump called “one of the greatest defeats in American history.”
India’s top diplomat believes that this trend will continue irrespective of who is in the Oval Office. “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. However, 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.”
Over the past several years, India has maintained a strategic balance between expanding its ties with Washington and key European countries while also maintaining a robust trade and diplomatic relationship with Russia, despite pressure from the West to sever its ties with Moscow.