Trump highly unpredictable, New Delhi will have to wait and watch: Ex-Indian diplomats

As Donald Trump registered a historic comeback in the US presidential election, many former Indian diplomats on Wednesday concurred that the India-US ties will "continue to grow" from strength to strength, even as some of them cautioned that Trump is "highly unpredictable" and New Delhi will have to "wait and watch" to see what position he adopts going forward.

The former ambassadors of India, also said the Russia-Ukraine war will be "high on his agenda" and that Trump may even make a statement on this conflict before the formal inauguration in January next year.

Scripting history, the 78-year-old Republican leader won the US presidency for a second term in one of the greatest political comebacks in American history, cruising past his Democratic rival Kamala Harris in a bitterly fought election.

Venu Rajamony, who served as India's envoy to the Netherlands from 2017 to 2020, said India must "carefully and consciously" move forward, even as "we do everything possible" to strengthen the relationship.

"I think India-US relations is based on a strong foundation. India has worked with the previous Trump government. President Trump and Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi enjoy a good personal relationship and the Indian community in the US is a strong bulwark of this relationship. So, we can presume that India-US relationship will continue to grow from strength to strength," he told PTI.

"However, we in India should not take this relationship for granted," he said.

Reminding that for Trump it is "always 'America First'", the former envoy cautioned that he will sort of go ahead and do what he thinks is best for the American interest and New Delhi must be "prepared for the ups and downs in the relationship" whether on trade or other issues where India disagrees with the US.

"So, it is in our interest to protect and preserve our strategic autonomy. We may find more pressure of some... from the US, to try and dilute that autonomy and make us more of, sort of an ally of their's which may not be in our interest. So, we must carefully and consciously move forward even as we do everything possible to strengthen the relationship," Rajamony added.

Trump, who has been a real estate baron, was elected as the 45th President of the US, riding on his 'Make America Great Again' campaign and returns to the White House as the 47th President of that country, clearing the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.

His win also made him the only US president after Grover Cleveland to serve non-consecutive terms. Cleveland was both the 22nd and 24th president, serving from 1885 to 1889 and then again from 1893 to 1897.

Rajamony, currently working as a professor of diplomatic practice at O P Jindal Global University, also said that Trump has a number of foreign policy issues on his table, even more important is the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and similarly what is happening in Gaza.

Only then the question of China and what kind of relationship the US develops under Trump, with China, whether it is one of cooperation or competition or whether it is something that combines both, "all that needs to be seen", he said.

"He is highly unpredictable. So, we will have to wait and watch to see what position he adopts, he has to formulate his foreign policy team and there is still time for him till January to assume office," the former diplomat said.

The run-up to what has been described as one of the closest US elections in recent times saw Trump and his 60-year-old Democratic rival Harris holding packed rallies and firing fierce verbal volleys against each other.

Many US voters counted immigration, border security, gun control laws, reproductive rights and foreign policy as factors weighing on their minds in this election.

India's former ambassador to Italy, K P Fabian, said, "Coming to strategic relations, Trump will be supportive of closer relationship with India." Fabian said the Russia-Ukraine war and the West Asia conflict may have been a factor that might have influenced the voters' decisions.

He felt that Trump would like the war in Ukraine to be over and that it would be weighing on his mind even before the inauguration ceremony.

Rajamony, when asked if the Ukraine war will be high on Trump's agenda, said, "absolutely".

"In fact, he himself had said that it is high on his agenda and knowing the kind of person he is, he may not even wait till the formal inauguration, so he may make statements, make moves which indicates or reflects his thinking on how the problem should be solved. So, let us wait and watch," he added.

On the issues during the campaigns, Rajamony said Trump had "immigration and border control" as number one issues on his agenda.

"And clearly that is something which has affected the minds of a large number of people. And, he has also promised that it is one of the first issues he will tackle, he and his US vice presidential candidate had threatened that US is going to witness the biggest evacuation it has ever seen," he recalled.

So, a lot tensions this campaign has built up and will "probably grow" in the days to come and one will have to wait and watch to see how the minority immigrants are treated in coming time.

"Anti-immigrant and anti-minority sentiments could also spiral against India. We need to be wary and careful of that," he cautioned. PTI