“Transactional Leader, No Surprises”: Shashi Tharoor On Trump 2.0 For India

New Delhi:

Congress leader Shashi Thaoor, who heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, told NDTV today Donald Trump is a familiar politician who India has engaged with before, and so the Trump 2.0 administration should not have any surprises for India.

In a short conversation with NDTV, the diplomat-turned-politician from Kerala explained briefly the areas that India already understands about Mr Trump’s style of working, and how India can keep those in mind while engaging with him again.

“We know him very well. He has already been president for four years. I don’t think there will be any surprise as to what kind of politics he will do. He’s a transactional politician, ‘what can you do for me, and what can I do for you’ type of leader,” Mr Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, told NDTV.

“He’s very tough on trade. If we apply tariffs on American goods coming to India, he’d say the US would also apply high tariffs on Indian goods. This is not good for our companies that are exporting to America,” Mr Tharoor said.

“There could be difficulties in immigration issues. He has a very strong stand on immigration. If some of our people who have gone to the US want to take their families, and there’s a shortage of visas, they may face problems,” he said.

Mr Tharoor called for a balanced approach to China, considering the tough stand the US takes on the Asian giant’s rise.

“In security matters, he doesn’t like China at all. The US taking a tough stand on China is in our interest. But everything needs a balance. We have known Trump for some years. As I said, there are no surprises. We can engage with him, keeping these things in mind,” Mr Tharoor said.

Mr Trump claimed a “magnificent” victory today over Kamala Harris in the fight for the presidency as results put him on the verge of one of the most stunning comebacks in US political history.

The Republican former president’s address to a crowd of jubilant supporters came despite the fact that only Fox News had so far declared him the winner of the presidential election.

World leaders rushed to congratulate him before the final results were in, with Ukraine’s president in particular urging Mr Trump to help achieve a “just peace” against Russia.