What Joe Biden's Win Could Mean For India As Opposed To Donald Trump

Joe Biden, the Democratic Party nominee has a commanding lead over Trump while his presidency hangs in lurch. But what does we, as Indians, have in it for us if Biden wins the election.?

Indian strategic analysts are clinically reassessing the prospects for India-US relations in the event of a change of guard.?US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, both very conscious of their image, invested heavily in personal relationships with other leaders over the past four years.?

AFP

With the possibility of Joe Biden winning the hotly contested election, the focus of India-US relations is likely to shift once again to the institutional basis of friendship, taking relations to another level in a more transparent manner, making them more predictable.??

H-1B visa

Biden has released a policy document?– reportedly the first-ever by a presidential candidate – aimed exclusively at Indians. Among other things, it mentions his plans to reform the H-1B visa system, increase the number of visas, and eliminate “the limits on employment-based green cards by country, which have kept so many Indian families in waiting for too long”.?Experts believe Biden would be good for Indian immigration to the US as opposed to Trump who has time and again expressed his views and revised the visa rules against Indians.

Freepik

Paris agreement

Biden’s commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change could also benefit India, which was hoping for investment from the Green Climate Fund in Indian renewable energy intiatives.

AFP

Quite unexpectedly, Trump recently insulted?the people of India by saying, “Russia, China, and India are filthy, the air is filthy.” Biden responded, “You don’t speak about friends like that.” This brought Trump’s fickle-mindedness into sharp focus.

The US returning to the Paris Agreement would be a major boost for global environmental efforts.

Human rights?

In broad-sweep terms, India may seem a natural ‘strategic partner’ of the US, driven closer in recent decades by geopolitical developments, particularly China’s rise. Under Trump, of course, the relationship became more transactional, partly given Trump’s incapacity to see beyond the news cycle. Over time, however, both Republic and Democratic administrations have invested in the broader India-US relationship, although Democratic presidents tend to take the high moral ground on human rights issues.??

AFP

As vice president under Barack Obama, Biden was quite vocal is his views about human rights violations and in all probability, he will speak up if India violates basic rights of its people as opposed to Trump.

In recent years, the Democratic Party has lurched so far to the Left that it has accommodated strands of opinion that are ill-disposed to the Right-wing impulses of the Narendra Modi government.?PM Modi’s embrace of Trump, literally and figuratively, may also complicate the plot for bilateral relations under a Biden presidency.? ??

India-China ties

On China, Biden, given his experience as vice president under Obama and his recent tough policy pronouncements, could prove to be more decisive. Biden has been much more critical of China’s policies in Xinjian province (atrocities against the Uyghurs), its treatment of Hong Kong protests and Taiwan than Trump.

A stronger US stand against China could be positive for India, which has been dealing with it both militarily and diplomatically as it addresses China’s incursions into Ladakh.