‘America has shown its true colors’: Fareed Zakaria says Trump 2.0 may drive India to Russia, China

4 comments

1. Personally, I’ve always been hugely skeptical of the so-called “rules based order” that America essentially created and runs. Most of the Western world and many countries in the Indo-Pacific have accepted this as beneficial to their own interests. But Trump’s “shakedown” diplomacy and the open desire of his cabinet to essentially plunder their economies and extract maximum tributes just for having any positive relationship with America at all, while paradoxically giving better treatment to small dictatorships that have little to offer, has shown everyone the cost of these assumptions.

   Now, most Americans are either indifferent about India or negative about it, because their knowledge is limited to racist stereotypes about public hygiene, outsourcing of jobs, H1B visas, India having a Hindu nationalist government, or India helping Russia. As such not many are going to understand the significance of what Trump has done. Many self-proclaimed “liberals” and “progressives” are actually praising him for it.

   India was never a US ally or client state the way Japan, Taiwan or South Korea were, but it was always friendly to the West(At least to Western Europe, even during the Cold War), saw no logical reason to participate in any long-term geopolitical games against the USA(unlike Russia or China) and, as a result of economic cooperation, had been moving closer to the United States over the last 25 years, to the degree that in another 25, it had a good chance of actually becoming a major strategic partner. For all the rhetoric from its socialist politicians, its people, particularly the younger generations, saw closer ties with the USA as more important than maintaining Cold-War-era ties with Russia, or repairing strained ties with China.

   Trump reversed all that progress in 25 hours and made it clear that he and his cabinet have no interest in India but to punish it, having even cancelled all trade negotiations without a word. That is something that America is going to pay a longer-term price for, because in another 25-30 years, tariffs or no tariffs, India’s economy will be on a level comparable to where China is now, and when it actually has the leverage, its people and policymakers will be more inclined to take a Russia/China style adversarial approach towards the United States, rather than a Japan/South Korea style friendly one.

2. Why closer to Russia and China and not the EU?

3. Ah yes, THIS is the watershed moment that shows America only cares about America.

4. I think that is the whole point. Trump pretends to be tough against India while doing what Putin wants: opening a market in India. Russia is pretty much a vassal state to China, and they are desperate to explore alternatives. India provides this alternative. Trump placement really payed off for Russia.

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