While a lot of countries are nervous about the US — following the return of Donald Trump as President — India is not among them, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Sunday.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first three calls, I think, that President (elect) Trump took. India and Prime Minister Modi have built rapport with multiple presidents – from Barack Obama to Trump and Joe Biden,” he said.
“For him (Modi) there’s something natural in terms of how he forges those relationships. So that’s helped hugely. And I think the changes in India have helped as well,” he said, when asked how he sees the US presidential election outcome impacting India-US ties, especially given Modi’s strong personal rapport with the US President-elect.
“I know today a lot of countries are nervous about the US, let’s be honest about it. We are not one of them,” Jaishankar said.
#WATCH | Mumbai: At Aditya Birla 25th Silver Jubilee Scholarship Program, EAM Dr S Jaishankar says “…The Prime Minister was among the first three calls President Trump took. PM Modi has built rapport across multiple Presidents. When he first came to DC, Obama was the President,… pic.twitter.com/hSLDK8sKKF
— ANI (@ANI) November 10, 2024
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President-elect Donald Trump “reaffirmed their commitment” to working together to further strengthen bilateral ties across a range of sectors, the MEA said on Thursday, referring to the phone call both leaders had earlier on Wednesday.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the prime minister highlighted that the US leader’s “spectacular and resounding victory” in the election reflected the “deep trust” of the American people in his leadership and vision.
PM Modi also warmly congratulated him on his “re-election as the president of the United States of America as well as the Republican Party’s success in the Congressional elections”, it said.
Speaking at the silver jubilee celebrations of the Aditya Birla Group’s Scholarships programme in Mumbai, Jaishankar also said that there is a trend towards a more diverse, multipolar world but older, industrialised economies have not gone away and remain prime investment targets.
“Yes, there is a shift. We are ourselves an example of the shift… if you look at our economic weight, you look at our economic ranking, you look at even Indian corporates, their reach, their presence, Indian professionals, which I spoke about. So no question there is a rebalancing,” Jaishankar said in response to a question on the reset in the global power dynamic that was playing out amid the shift in the balance of power from the west to the east.
