US to grow more isolationist no matter who is the next president: S Jaishankar

The United States is likely to become more isolationist regardless of who becomes its next president, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday.

Speaking at an event in Canberra as Americans were still casting votes, Jaishankar said the election was unlikely to reverse what he called a long-term trend in US policy. “Probably starting from (President Barack) Obama, the US has become much more cautious about its global commitments,” he said, pointing to a US reluctance to deploy troops and its withdrawal from Afghanistan under President Joe Biden.

“President Trump may be more articulate and expressive in that regard,” he said during a panel discussion with the foreign ministers of Australia and New Zealand. But, he added, “it’s important to look at the US more nationally than purely in terms of the ideology of the administration of the day.”

“If we are truly analysing them, I think we have to prepare for a world where actually the kind of dominance and generosity which the US had in the early days may not continue.” That said, Jaishankar said on Tuesday that India’s relationship with the United States would only grow in the future.

All three foreign ministers said their nations needed to step in to create the global environment they wanted. “We all have an interest today in creating some kind of collaborative consensual arrangement.” Jaishankar said.

“There is more protectionism,” said New Zealand’s Winston Peters. “The world we were once trying to build on is changing, and we’ll have to react and change with it.”