India: Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump to become the 46th president of the United States, the President-Elect and his team said that they were prioritising to deal with the coronavirus pandemic as cases in the country near 10 million. But what’s in it for India?
Donald Trump Junior, the son of outgoing US President Donald Trump, in October claimed if Democrat nominee Joe Biden won the US presidential election, it would be “not good” for India because he would be “soft on China”.
Meanwhile , China declined Monday to congratulate Joe Biden as the winner of the US presidential election, saying the outcome of the vote was still to be determined.
So still Joe Biden will be ‘soft’ towards China?
There aren’t such indications in his or Democratic Party’s China policy outlook. Joe Biden has not assumed the office and it is still more than two months away before he could officially act on, against or for China. But going by his description of China and its President Xi Jinping in the recent past, China is not going to have a “soft” US president in Joe Biden.
Will India be benefited by the New President of US?
Speculations says, Not much will change with the host of security and defence ties shared by India and the United States. But a Biden administration could mean a much closer look at India’s spotty recent human rights and religious freedom records, both of which were largely ignored by Trump.
Biden is also expected to be more critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies, which some critics say are against minorities, according to Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center.
The countries will work more closely to counterbalance China, a shared rival, Kugelman said. A Biden White House won’t “risk antagonizing a country that is widely viewed in Washington as America’s best strategic bet in South Asia,” he said.
However, There is no denying the fact that Trump backed India to the hilt during the ongoing border tension with China but it is likely that 77-year-old Biden may try to bring New Delhi and Beijing to the negotiation table and may not openly support India like Trump.
Why Pakistan rooting for Biden’s Presidency?
On the other hand, One cannot overlook at the fact that Biden is an old diplomat and has had cordial relations with Pakistan and he may favour pakistan unlike Trump. That is one of the reasons why Pakistan is rooting for him.
In 2008, Pakistan had conferred Biden with the second highest civilian honor, ‘Hilal-e-Pakistan’. Joe Biden and Senator Richard Lugar were beind the proposal to bring $ 1.5 billion non-military aid to Pakistan. Lugar too was awarded the ‘Hilal-e-Pakistan’.
All in all, Joe Biden and Harris are here to stay and we will know what in it for India in a meantime. But Expert feels more or less everything will be same for India as it was under trump’s leadership.