'The touchstone is reciprocity which will be applied to friends and foes alike.'
'It will be a bitter pill to swallow.'
"Faced with a global reset, both geopolitically and economically, by the Trump administration, this may be the best time for India to start playing a more proactive political role in regional conflicts. If not, that space is being occupied by countries like Turkiye or Saudi Arabia or Qatar," says Ambassador T S Tirumurti, India's ambassador to the United Nations in New York [2020-2022].
"While we have shown the world what we are capable of in other areas, we must regain our political role as a net security provider and a rule maker rather than a rule taker for international peace and security.
"We have played that role before, for example during the Korean war in the early 1950s and we can play it again," he says about the challenges for India in the Trump 2.0 era.
Ambassador Tirumurti was secretary in the ministry of external affairs dealing with the Arab world and Africa. He is well-versed in Arabic.
In a career spanning 37 years, he has served in Cairo, Geneva, Gaza, Washington, DC, Jakarta and was India's high commissioner to Malaysia.
He was India's first Representative to the Palestinian Authority in Gaza where he was stationed for two years.
This is the concluding part of Ambassador Tirumurti's must read interview to Rediff.com's Archana Masih.
- Part 1 of the Interview: 'Trump Will Do A Deal With China'
- Part 2 of the Interview: 'Don't Think US Will Cut Off Ties With UN'
Will 'transactionalism' or 'give and take' be the defining core of Trump's foreign policy?
While 'transactionalism' has certainly been the hallmark of the recent moves by the US on the economy and trade related issues -- which is receiving its highest priority, -- let us not underestimate the geopolitical logic behind some of their moves. President Trump is not status-quoist and will not hesitate to use hard power.
On the one hand, the America First policy of Trump administration 2.0 is focusing on securing the best interest for the US, primarily in the economic and trade sphere.
The recently released 2025 Trade Policy of the US lays out in clear terms what their expectations are. 'Rebalancing' trade relations, 'reshoring' manufacturing and production, opening market access, reducing trade deficit and enhancing technology innovation are the priority areas.
The US is ready to do whatever it can to secure these priorities, including using tariffs as a weapon to balance any unfair advantage the other countries may have.
Here, the touchstone is reciprocity. And this touchstone will be applied to friends and foes alike, to developed and developing alike, till a deal is reached.
It is going to be a bitter pill to swallow.
On the other hand, resetting relations with Russia or with Europe is as much strategic as it is transactional.
The deal with Russia may be a comprehensive one covering political and security issues as well, where the US has talked about decreasing nuclear arsenals, removing sanctions and bringing Russia into the economic and security architecture of Europe -- in effect 'rehabilitating' Russia after the Ukraine war.
This is a big geopolitical step. A possible deal with China, which I had mentioned about earlier, will also reset the geopolitics of the world.
Will it purely be a give-and-take relationship as far as India is concerned? What challenges and opportunities does this throw for Indian foreign policy?
Gauging from the success of Mr Modi's visit to the White House last month, what are the strengths of Indian diplomacy that will enable India in dealing with a mercurial Trump?
The visit of Prime Minister Modi to the US has been timely. India certainly impressed on the US the importance we continue to attach to our bilateral relations, reinforced our readiness to work on a range of bilateral issues and has also bought us some breathing space on trade and other economic issues.
While the good news is that the US and India have a wide-ranging strategic partnership, it equally clear that the steps that India will take in the next few days and months will probably determine how our bilateral relations will develop with Trump 2.0.
With a potential Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) expected, India will need to seriously relook its high tariff structures which clearly are restrictive, have protectionist overtones and are complex to navigate.
This relook is necessary for India's own ambition of high growth and to potentially become China-plus-one and not merely to address American pressure.
Since President Trump is expected to visit India for the QUAD summit, the pressure is on India to make this visit happen by, at the very least, clinching an early harvest deal.
Then comes the move to reduce our tariffs, provide greater market access and reduce trade surplus with the US probably by purchasing more of American oil and gas. Whether we will restrict the changes in tariffs etc only to the US or more generally is a moot point but there is no doubt that with strong manufacturing and agricultural lobbies in India, decision-making is not going to be easy.
However, if the deal between the US and China were to happen in the not-too-distant future, there will be a geopolitical fallout on India-Pacific and on India as well. This will increase the Chinese influence in the region.
If these two decide to carve out their respective spheres of influence resulting in a potential US withdrawal from the region, the situation will get more complicated.
In the midst of this American reset both with Russia and with China -- with Russia and China still committed to their bilateral 'no-limits' partnership, it is necessary for India to keep the US fully committed to QUAD (US, Japan, Australia and India) and not let it become a casualty.
IMAGE: Ambassador T S TirumurtiIndia has the leadership and the ability to calibrate our policies to tackle American pressure.
We have done it before and I don't see why we can't do it now. We have also been no less 'transactional' in securing some of our interests when we were accosted with the Ukraine war or the turmoil in the Middle East.
But a mere transactional approach may be a temporary quick-fix but not a good one for a long-term partnership with the US.
Faced with a global reset, both geopolitically and economically even ideologically, by the Trump administration, this may be the best time for India to start playing a more proactive political role in regional conflicts. If not, that space is being occupied by countries like Türkiye or Saudi Arabia or Qatar.
This is one aspect where we have not exploited our potential in the midst of our almost sole focus on our economic growth and development over two decades.
We have shown the world what we are capable of and have contributed immensely to the global good like Vaccine Maitri during Covid, climate action like establishing the International Solar Alliance and Global Biofuels alliance, digital public infrastructure like India stack etc. But that is not enough.
We must now start regaining our potential political role as a net security provider and a geopolitical player committed to international peace and security. We have tentatively played such a role in the recent past vis a vis combatting piracy in the Gulf etc, but I am thinking more like the role we had played before, for example during the Korean war in the early 1950s.
India played an important role in the Korean war when we were in the UN Security Council between 1951-1952 -- less than four years after our Independence. The fact that we were an impoverished nation due to colonial rule did not stop us from playing that role and in recognition we were made the Chair of the Neutral Nations Repatriation Committee after the armistice.
Now we are the fifth largest economy and with ambitions to become bigger, and I don't see why we can't play that role again in regional conflicts and challenges.
In fact, we need to play that role if are to emerge as a strong pole in any multipolar world. An increase in the political heft of India can only be good for India and a possible answer to the political reset between the US, Russia and China.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
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