Breaking News: Trump’s return to White House gives more teeth to India’s multilateralism….See More

In the past four years, former US President Joe Biden used collective might to counter common challenges. To counter Chinese designs in the Indo-Pacific region, he propped Aukus with the United Kingdom and Australia and revitalised Quad with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. To counter Russian aggression in Europe, he put his weight behind the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) to support Ukraine and aid European allies. But that’s now past.

Unlike Biden, a lifelong internationalist, Trump is a transanctionalist to the core who believes in cutting direct deals and has no issues in leaving allies and partners in the lurch — Ukraine being the case in point that he appears to be serving to Russian leader Vladimir Putin on a platter. This is why Trump is bypassing allies and partners to engage with China and Russia directly.