Trump security plan urges improved India ties, continued Quad cooperation

Released last week, President Trump's security strategy calls for working with India to secure the Indo-Pacific, the South China Sea, and US interests in the Western Hemisphere

The United States (US) will seek to strengthen its relations with India—primarily on the commercial front—to encourage New Delhi to contribute to Indo-Pacific security, according to US President Donald Trump’s National Security Strategy released last week. The document also indicates that the quadrilateral (Quad) framework—and India’s continued participation in it—will remain on the agenda of the administration, which views China’s rise as a principal strategic challenge.

 

Comprising India, the US, Japan and Australia, the Quad—an informal security grouping—aims to promote an open, stable and inclusive Indo-Pacific. China, however, views it as an attempt at encirclement and dismisses it as a Cold War construct.

  

Noting that the Indo-Pacific already accounts for nearly half of global GDP on a purchasing power parity basis and one third on a nominal basis, the strategy document forecasts that this share will inevitably rise over the 21st century. “…The Indo-Pacific is already and will continue to be among the next century’s key economic and geopolitical battlegrounds. To thrive at home, we must successfully compete there—and we are,” says the document, which is typically released once each term to outline the US government’s policy priorities. Underlining the US’s continued commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, it adds, “President Trump is building alliances and strengthening partnerships in the Indo-Pacific that will be the bedrock of security and prosperity long into the future.”

 

Specifically highlighting India, the strategy document states, “We must continue to improve commercial (and other) relations with India to encourage New Delhi to contribute to Indo-Pacific security, including through continued quadrilateral cooperation with Australia, Japan, and the United States (‘the Quad’).”

 

Describing competition in the economic sphere as involving “the ultimate stakes”, the document frames this policy goal within the Trump administration’s plan to work with US treaty allies and partners to counter predatory economic practices. It notes that the combined economic power of these nations—estimated at $65 trillion, with the US alone contributing $30 trillion through its national economy—must be leveraged not only to safeguard the United States’ “prime position in the world economy” but also to ensure that allied economies do not become “subordinate” to any competing power. 

Categorising the prospect of any competitor controlling the South China Sea as another major security challenge—one in which a potentially hostile power could impose a “toll” on one of the world’s most critical commercial arteries or open and close it at will—the document calls for developing “strong measures” and the deterrence required to keep those sea lanes open. “This will require not just further investment in our military—especially naval—capabilities, but also strong cooperation with every nation that stands to suffer, from India to Japan and beyond, if this problem is not addressed,” it adds.

 

Despite its emphasis on the Indo-Pacific and the broader Asian region, the document identifies the Western Hemisphere as the area where the US will likely concentrate most of its efforts, describing it as the country’s own hemisphere. “After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, and to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region,” it states, adding that Washington will seek to deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in the region. The document refers to this as the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine and frames the restoration of American power and priorities in the hemisphere as the objective.

 

Here too, India receives specific mention as a potential partner, with the document stating, “America should similarly enlist our European and Asian allies and partners, including India, to cement and improve our joint positions in the Western Hemisphere and, with regard to critical minerals, in Africa.”

 

First articulated by US President James Monroe in 1823, the Monroe Doctrine held that any foreign intervention in the political affairs of the Western Hemisphere—which comprises North and South America and the surrounding waters—would be regarded as a potentially hostile act against the United States, reflecting concerns at the time about European colonial ambitions.

 

The document reiterates Trump’s claim that he brought an end to the hostilities between India and Pakistan that took place between May 7 and May 10. “…Over the course of just eight months, we settled eight raging conflicts — including between Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the DRC and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and ending the war in Gaza with all living hostages returned to their families.”

 

New Delhi maintains that the military action, codenamed Operation Sindoor—launched in response to the April Pahalgam terrorist attack and Islamabad’s attempts to target Indian military and civilian assets following the initial strikes on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan—was paused after appeals from the Pakistani side and the achievement of India’s objectives.

 

The strategy’s overarching objective is to ensure that the US “remains the world’s strongest, richest, most powerful, and most successful country for decades to come.” Singling out China, the document asserts that President Trump has “single-handedly reversed” more than three decades of “mistaken American assumptions about China.” Arguing that China’s integration into the rules-based international order did not take place despite the policies pursued by previous US administrations, the document contends that Beijing has instead used its growing wealth and power to secure a disproportionate advantage.