EAM S Jaishankar says Donald Trump’s bold foreign policy shift ‘not surprising,’ sees benefits for India

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that he is not surprised by the foreign policy shift under President Donald Trump in the United States and pointed out that its fallouts could benefit India in many ways.

“I must say, in all honesty, it is not surprising,” the minister said in London when asked what he makes of the first 41 days of the US's new foreign policy under President Trump. Jaishankar was speaking with Chatham House Director and Chief Executive Bronwen Maddox.

Jaishankar is on a six-day visit to the UK and Ireland today to explore ways to further boost bilateral cooperation. He met United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday and discussed advancing bilateral economic cooperation and enhancing people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.

“If you actually tracked it and assumed that most of the time, you know, political leaders, at least, do much of what they promised to do. They do not always succeed, or they do not always get everything they want, but as a general principle, you know when political forces or political leaders have an agenda, particularly if it is one which they have developed over a fairly long period of time and have been very articulate and passionate about it,” the minister said hours after President Donald Trump vowed to keep up his campaign of “swift and unrelenting action” in reorienting the nation’s economy, immigration and foreign policy.

There's no baggage: Jaishankar

In his first joint address to the Congress in his second term, President Trump Trump on Tuesday night (US time) once again targetted India for its high tariffs and announced that reciprocal tariffs will take effect from April 2. Trump singled out the auto sector, where he said India charges tariffs of over a 100 per cent.

At the London event, Jaishankar said much of what has been seen and heard over the last few weeks “was to be expected.”

“So I'm a little surprised that people are surprised. Now, that said, is it good for India? In many ways. I would say yes... So one looks, you know, at our own political relationship, to be very honest with you. We have never had any issues with American presidents, at least in recent times. There's no baggage, which we carry or burden that the relationship carries,” he said.

Protests erupted after undocumented immigrants were handcuffed and chained while being deported to India after the Trump administration took over in January. India has downplayed such criticism. Jaishankar informed the Parliament on February 6 that the deportation was not a new development, and the use of restraints on the deportees was as per the ‘standard operating procedure.’