A Democrat administration in the US is more rational, mature and friendly to India and should not club with China and other countries on issues of trade, climate change, oil and defense exports.
The Trump administration has forged closer alliances with India at a time of increasing Chinese aggression at the Line of Actual Control (LIC), which is increasingly tightening its grip on China. Trump has also cracked down on Pakistan for not giving money to Islamabad. In the deal, he also gave Islamabad a place in the Afghanistan peace talks.
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The Democrat administration is likely to return to the drawing board on the US-Iran nuclear deal, which will open up not only Iranian oil but also India’s strategic space with Iran in the Middle East. A Biden-Harris presidency can also be seen in the Paris Agreement, visas for Indian workers, and so on. All things considered, although Biden was less interested in seeing relations with India in the personalized format that Modi prefers, it should be good for India and can be seen as government-to-government relations.
Why Trump wasn’t great for India
Donald Trump was very happy to address Modi in a crowded stadium. Modi’s words “Abky Bar, Trump Sarkar (Vote Trump this time)” almost got him approval. If you look at the issues, the Trump presidency is not great for India.
Trump’s seeming, isolated attitude seems to have betrayed American friends like India. His defense policies have hurt the Indian economy and his xenophobia has hurt Indian immigration visa-seekers more than all Muslim countries.
Donald Trump has forced India not to buy cheap oil from Iran and Venezuela. . Despite the India-China border tensions, Donald Trump has not pardoned India from an American law threatening sanctions on countries that buy arms from Russia.
Meanwhile, Trump has increased tariffs on everything from India to imports, from steel to rubber, leading to a “small trade war” with India. He dropped the priority treatment given to Indian exports, further hurting the Indian economy at a time of bleeding. Several changes in U.S. visa policies have made it harder for U.S. companies to hire Indians on H-1B work visas. This has severely damaged the Indian outsourcing model.
India ratified the Paris Climate Agreement in October 2016, underlining that the US would keep its word on the Green Climate Fund, which invests in Indian renewable resources. But Trump was reluctant to take the money out and blamed India and China for pulling out of the Paris Agreement.
