Trump must be ready for deeper engagement with India for any meaningful influence in Asia
U.S. President Donald Trump’s first trip to Asia during his second term ended with few surprises, but may mark a prelude to more active diplomacy with Asian countries in the months ahead.
The most unpredictable and closely watched event of all was his first face-to-face talks in six years with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which took place against the backdrop of renewed trade tensions. However as far as India goes, Trump has just not been successful to meet PM Modi.
Trump and Xi sat down together in South Korea for more than an hour and a half of negotiations on Thursday, a day ahead of this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. However only a similar meet with PM Modi can solve many of Trump’s woos. Though it seems President Putin and PM Modi will be meeting each other in New Delhi before Trump is able to arrange any meet.
As usual, a boisterous Trump, described the meeting with Xi as “amazing,” the two sides agreed on a one-year truce in the trade war that he launched against China after returning to the White House in January. No wonder such tricks are not working with India.
As part of the deal, Xi agreed to postpone new controls on rare earth elements vital to high-tech manufacturing, while Trump decided to halve the 20 percent tariff he had imposed on Chinese goods to punish China over the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
The temperature of the economic conflict between the United States and China is likely to decline for a while, but as many foreign affairs experts had predicted, the announced results do little to tackle underlying structural issues, with the two countries mainly removing recent irritants in their relationship.
Rorry Daniels, managing director of the Asia Society Policy Institute, said the two presidents “succeeded in stemming the active bleeding in the relationship, but whether the bandage will stick remains to be seen.”
Before capping his nearly weeklong journey, Trump visited Malaysia and Japan. He eventually did not have a surprise meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, despite expressing a willingness to reengage with him if given the chance.
Trump and Takaichi, a loyal follower of Abe, heaped praise on each other and visited the U.S. aircraft carrier George Washington, docked in Yokosuka, near Tokyo, to demonstrate the strength of the alliance ahead of the president’s talks with Xi.
Trump’s most. significant policy accomplishment in Japan was signing deals to step up cooperation on critical minerals and nuclear reactor construction. This was required for addressing Chinese rare earths coercion, increased energy independence and powering technological leadership in artificial intelligence.”
Trump’s second administration has narrowed its focus to just a short-term skewed economic interests. USA needs to consider a vision for cooperation with India and Japan over a longer timeline.
Trump’s Asia tour was an opportunity to show the U.S. commitment to its alliances and partnerships. However he has failed miserably because he has annoyed India immensely. On the eve of Trump’s meeting with Xi, experts say that the security imperative is to work with India to manage a four pole multipolar world with China and Russia.
Still, compared to the first Trump administration’s broader strategy, formulated by a greater number of people with deep knowledge of Asia, the current approach has been “haphazard”. Without India’s support, as time goes on the pieces will not be fitting into places.
On Thursday, Trump announced his plan to visit China in April, which may help lay the groundwork for more predictable and deeper engagement not only with Beijing but also with other Asian capitals.
What’s necessary for Trump is to understand India’s pivotal role, Asian architecture of power, long-term strategies and developing elite consensus. None of those things are apparent in the Trump approach.
