- Thursday, December 26, 2024
The former minister of state for external affairs flagged concerns on immigration and trade with Trump coming to power
By: Shajil Kumar
SENIOR Congress leader and chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said there will be basic continuation of the India-US relationship with Donald Trump staging a comeback and noted that his being tough on China “is good for us”.
The former minister of state for external affairs also flagged concerns on immigration and trade with Trump coming to power and noted that the US leader has a “transactional attitude” on many matters.
Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on Wednesday, an extraordinary comeback for a former president.
“Frankly there should not be major surprises because the gentleman has been an open book for some time. He was president for four years, so we have the experience of dealing with him. He has been quite outspoken on various issues,” Tharoor said.
“We know for example that he has a transactional attitude on many matters. He essentially will say ‘what you will do for me before he decides to do anything for you’. He also has a very tough line on trade, he has criticised India for its tariffs and said that ‘if India raises tariffs we will also raise tariffs for India’, that is something we should be watching out for because that is what it will effect companies on their viability of their exports to America,” the Congress leader added.
Noting that Trump has taken a tough line on immigration, Tharoor said he does not know how much it will effect legal immigrants.
“The numbers (of legal immigrants) may come down and family reunion issues may arise for some of our nationals,” he added.
Tharoor said the other concern that many people have is that Trump may be somewhat temperamental on any issues that cross his path.
“However, we also know he is very tough on China which is good for us as we ourselves having our own issues with China. So that is where we can find ourselves finding common cause with Mr Trump,” the Congress leader said.
“The fact that he is a known commodity with a good relationship with our PM is bound to be a positive thing in the relationship between two heads of government. So all of these things are there…he has visited India before and I think we can expect there will be basic continuation of the relationship between the two countries,” Tharoor added.
The Congress leader said there is a certain underlying stability to India-US relations and that comes from the fact that there has been are a number of common interests and no real clashing issues which the two countries disagree profoundly.
“On top of that you have got a situation that there are a good 3-4 million Indian-Americans who are influential in that country whose voice counts. For all these reasons I don’t see any major surprises,” Tharoor said.
Climate crisis
Policy experts see Trump’s election as a profound blow to global climate justice and felt that his disregard for international agreements and refusal to provide climate finance will deepen the crisis.
Sunita Narain, the director general of Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment, said Trump winning the White House race is a “big setback” for global climate efforts, especially if he rolls back critical domestic policies like the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
She said the US has historically fallen short in global climate efforts, particularly on financing support for vulnerable countries, decarbonisation and financial commitments to the developing world, and Trump’s presidency will make matters even worse.
In his campaign, Trump emphasised his support for increasing oil and gas production, with “Drill, baby, drill” as a key slogan.
He dismissed climate change concerns entirely. Rolling back the IRA and expanding oil production would be extremely harmful for international climate efforts, the climate policy expert said.
Harjeet Singh, climate activist and Global Engagement Director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, said Trump’s victory is a profound blow to global climate justice and an alarming escalation of climate risk for the world’s most vulnerable communities.
Trump’s push to ramp up fossil-fuel production, disregard for international agreements and refusal to provide climate finance will deepen the crisis, endangering lives and livelihoods — especially in regions least responsible for, yet most impacted by, climate change, he said.
Helen Clarkson, CEO of international non-profit Climate Group, said fighting climate change, financing the transition and taking action to reduce emissions have just become a “vastly bigger challenge, which will be felt at COP29 and in the years to come”.
This outcome in the US, just after two devastating hurricanes impacted the southern parts of the country, is in line with a trend of climate scepticism throughout the past election year, she said. (PTI)
