India eyes new trade and defence opportunities with Trump’s return

Pratap Chakravarty
·1-min read
US President Donald Trump hosts Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Houston in 2019.

India is seeking to deepen its partnership with the US under president-elect Donald Trump’s renewed leadership, anticipating shifts in trade, defence and technology. But while New Delhi sees Trump’s return as an opportunity to reshape supply chains and strengthen India’s global influence, analysts are wary of potential discord over tariffs and immigration policy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who referred to Trump as “my friend” following the election, expressed confidence in advancing US-India relations.

Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar highlighted the economic opportunities, pointing to ongoing supply chain shifts.

“There was already re-ordering of the supply chain which was taking place (and) it is very likely that in view of the election results in the US, that would accelerate,” he told business CEOs during an ongoing visit to Australia.

New opportunities

Jaishankar said India sees Trump’s second term as a chance to catch up on missed opportunities in manufacturing – a sector the country struggled to grow in past decades.

He also predicted Trump’s second term will encourage a “global workplace”, adding that Trump may distinguish between immigration and mobility, potentially benefiting Indian professionals.

"The demographic unevenness of the world is beginning to bite us so that there would be economies where the demand would be high. In those countries, the talents may not be plentiful," Jaishankar added.


Read more on RFI English

Read also:
India stands 'firmly for peace' PM Modi tells Ukraine's Zelensky
India considers joining Russia, China to build nuclear plant on Moon
Chancellor Scholz leads delegation to India seeking to reduce German reliance on China

Latest stories

  • Trump calls for immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and says a US withdrawal from NATO is possible

    Donald Trump on Sunday pushed Russian leader Vladimir Putin to act to reach an immediate ceasefire with Ukraine, describing it as part of his active efforts as president-elect to end the war despite being weeks from taking office. “Zelenskyy and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness," Trump wrote on social media, referring to Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In a television interview that aired Sunday, Trump also said he would be open to reducing military aid to Ukraine and pulling the United States out of NATO.

  • Fact check: Trump, repeating old lies on ‘Meet the Press,’ falsely claims US is the only country with birthright citizenship

    President-elect Donald Trump repeated numerous false claims during an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” – including his old lie that the US is the world’s only country with birthright citizenship.

  • Trump on Syria conflict: ‘This is not our fight’

    President-elect Trump heavily criticized Syrian rebels for their move to overtake the city of Damascus on Saturday, but emphasized that this was not America’s fight. “Russia, because they are so tied up in Ukraine, and with the loss there of over 600,000 soldiers, seems incapable of stopping this literal march through Syria, a country they…

  • As Assad falls, the power dynamics of this troubled, volatile region will utterly change

    Not when it comes to events currently under way in Syria, a country straddling the fault lines of the Middle East. The collapse of the Assad regime will be the most significant event yet in the upheaval that's followed the 7 October attacks by Hamas in Israel last year. It will be the end of a brutal reign of terror that has lasted since the Assad family, under patriarch Hafez Assad, seized power in the early 1970s.

  • Voices: Jeremy Hunt is fighting for his place in history – and the Tories’ future may depend on it

    COMMENT: The former chancellor says Rachel Reeves’s budget ‘black hole’ is fiction. John Rentoul examines whether voters will listen

  • US Military Alarmed by Russian Nuclear Weapon Platform in Orbit

    A Russian spacecraft launched higher than most satellites has long had the Pentagon worried — and new revelations about what it contains onboard have made those concerns all the greater. Launched in early 2022, Russia's Cosmos 2553 spacecraft is nominally built to test out "newly developed onboard instruments and systems." According to new reporting from the New York Times, however, the mysterious satellite system contains a "dummy warhead"

  • Russian bases in Syria threatened by insurgent advance, say Moscow's war bloggers

    (Reuters) -Two strategically-important Russian military facilities in Syria and Moscow's very presence in the Middle East are under serious threat from rapidly advancing insurgents, Russian war bloggers have warned. With Russian military resources mostly tied down in Ukraine where Moscow's forces are rushing to take more territory before Donald Trump comes to power in the U.S. in January, Russia's ability to influence the situation on the ground in Syria is far more limited than in 2015 when it intervened decisively to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Rapid advances by the insurgents threaten to undermine Russia's geopolitical clout in the Middle East and its ability to project power in the region, across the Mediterranean and into Africa.

  • How Oct 7 led to the fall of Syria – and the retreat of Iran

    They must be cursing the memory of Yahya Sinwar in Tehran’s corridors of power.

  • Syria's Assad is in Moscow after deal on military bases, says Russian state media

    (Reuters) -Syria's former President Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow with his family after Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds, a Kremlin source told Russian news agencies on Sunday, and a deal has been done to ensure the safety of Russian military bases. Russia's Foreign Ministry said earlier that Assad had left Syria and given orders for a peaceful transfer of power, after rebel fighters raced into Damascus unopposed on Sunday, ending nearly six decades of his family's iron-fisted rule.

  • Assad fall 'not surprising' as Russia and Iran decided to throw 'Syria under the bus'

    The Syrian government has collapsed, falling to a rebel offensive that seized control of the capital Damascus and sent crowds into the streets to celebrate. What unfolded was "not that surprising", according to Sky's defence analyst Professor Michael Clarke. From a military point of view it is what tends to happen, he said, citing similar scenarios in the Libyan civil war in 2011, and in Iraq in 2014 - when Islamic State fighters "were at the gates of Baghdad within weeks".

  • Israel seizes land on Syrian border and bombs Damascus

    Israel has seized land along its border with Syria and carried out air strikes on Damascus.

  • Angela Rayner says newts can't be more protected than people who need housing

    Protecting wildlife shouldn't come at the expense of building more homes, Angela Rayner has said. Last week, Sir Keir Starmer pledged to build 1.5 million homes and fast-track planning decisions on 150 major infrastructure projects by the end of the decade. Ms Rayner, who is deputy prime minister and housing secretary, was asked if this meant fewer protections for wildlife like newts, bats, and kittiwakes.

  • Will the Senate approve Tulsi Gabbard? Our experts are united

    Once is a mistake. Twice is a pattern. That’s the conundrum facing the Trump transition team right now, as rumours swirl that Tulsi Gabbard might be next on the senatorial chopping block.

  • Russia's Lavrov says advance by Syrian 'terrorists' is inadmissible

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday it was inadmissible to allow what he called a terrorist group to take control of Syrian lands. He was speaking in the Qatari capital Doha after meeting the Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers following a rapid advance by Syrian rebels led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militant group that threatens President Bashar al-Assad's rule. "It's inadmissible to allow the terrorist group to take control of the lands in violation of agreements," said Lavrov during a political forum in Doha.

  • Syria’s Assad Is Under Siege and Is Making Overtures to US

    (Bloomberg) -- With Syrian rebels edging ever-closer to the capital, President Bashar Al-Assad is making a last-ditch attempt to remain in power, including indirect diplomatic overtures to the US and President-elect Donald Trump, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.Most Read from BloombergA Chicago Skyscraper Cements the Legacy of a Visionary Postmodern ArchitectNYC’s Run-Down Bus Terminal Gets Approval for $10 Billion RevampKansas City Looks Back on its Long, Costly Ride

  • The US military struck 75 ISIS targets in Syria as Assad's government fell

    President Joe Biden said the US sought to prevent ISIS from regrouping amid the chaos of Assad's fall.

  • Video of military police officer throwing man off bridge sparks anger in Brazil

    A military police officer has been arrested in Brazil after a video emerged of him throwing a civilian over a bridge in Sao Paulo on Monday, sparking protests in the city.

  • UK to get new 2025 bank holiday to mark celebration

    The UK is set for an additional bank holiday to celebrate the 'Greatest Generation' meaning next year will see a four-day celebration

  • Trump’s Biggest Lies From His ‘Meet the Press’ Interview

    From immigrants to Obamacare, the president-elect continued his campaign trail falsehoods

  • City Labour leader ‘devastated’ after by-election error

    Glasgow Labour leader George Redmond said he is “absolutely devastated” for disqualified by-election winner Mary McNab.