‘Bolster multifaceted partnership’: India on ties with US under new Trump presidency

NEW DELHI: India is looking to bolster its broad and multifaceted partnership with the US, especially in areas such as trade, technology and mobility of professionals, and to work jointly for global peace and stability during the second presidential term of Donald Trump, the external affairs ministry said on Thursday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first world leaders to call Trump after his victory in the presidential election on Wednesday, and he spoke of renewing their collaboration to strengthen the bilateral partnership. Foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that Modi told Trump that India looks forward to working very closely with the US.
“Both India and the US will work for the betterment of the people and to promote global peace, stability and prosperity. We want to further strengthen our partnership and we look forward to it,” Jaiswal told a regular media briefing.
“The India-US partnership is a very special and a multifaceted partnership… Prime Minister conveyed to the President-elect that we look forward to working very closely, as we had done with him earlier as well, to further strengthen the India-US comprehensive global and strategic partnership,” he said.
Defence, innovation, technology, trade and investment are among the areas where India stands ready to do everything possible to strengthen the partnership with the US, Jaiswal said. Two-way trade in goods and services touched $190 billion in 2023, making the US India’s second-largest trading partner.
Noting that India and the US were able to resolve all seven of their pending trade disputes at the World Trade Organization (WTO) earlier this year, Jaiswal said the Indian side is willing to take up and discuss any outstanding issues between the two sides to further drive the trade relationship.
While the return of Trump has triggered concerns that he will take steps to cut immigration which could impact Indian professionals and students, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday that he expects the next US administration to make a distinction for “economically justified” mobility of professionals.
“Even a US under Donald Trump will make a distinction in immigration and mobility – that for them economically justified mobility will have to be fostered, while those where the economic value is less or negative will have to be managed,” Jaishankar said at a roundtable with CEOs in Sydney, Australia.
These trends are part of a move towards a more integrated global workplace, Jaishankar said, pointing out that India itself is home to 1,800 global capability centres that generate exports worth $150 billion.
Jaiswal said the mobility and migration partnership is an important part of bilateral ties as a large number of Indian professionals and students are based in the US. “Our policy is not to encourage illegal immigration, we want legal ways to travel abroad. India is known as the skill capital, and its young engineers and professionals are going to all corners of the world,” he said.
Referring to US efforts to deport illegal migrants from India, Jaiswal said Indian citizens irregularly staying in the US without documents “should come back”. He added, “We have continuous dialogue on this matter with the US and we want to see how best we can promote legal migration from our country.”
In Sydney, Jaishankar also listed several other consequences of Trump’s election victory for the India-US relationship, including the likely acceleration of reordering of supply chains. “Some of it would certainly be more disruptive, but we in India perceive it as an opportunity,” he said.
The return of Trump is also expected to lead to “more geopolitical hedging” as more countries will seek “more relationships to keep life stable”, Jaishankar said. In the digital sphere, the trustworthiness of digital products and services will come under greater scrutiny, especially in fields such as semiconductors, AI and digital payment platforms, he said.
India-US relations, especially in the fields of defence, security, trade and sensitive and emerging technologies, witnessed robust and steady growth during Trump’s first presidency and under the Joe Biden administration. Defence ties, including joint military exercises, sharing of information, and sales of advanced military hardware have grown over the years, and the two sides launched the groundbreaking initiative on critical and emerging technologies (iCET) in 2022.