The Indian Course of the New U.S. Administration in the Context of the U.S.-China Rivalry

The visit of Indian Prime Minister N. Modi to Washington in February 2025, which took place less than a month after the inauguration of the 47th President of the United States, attracted considerable attention from politicians and experts. Assessments focused on the prospects for relations between the two largest democracies in the world during Donald Trump's second term. Commentators once again analyzed the motives and driving forces behind the dynamically developing U.S.-India relations, with the "China factor" once again playing a prominent role. Dialogue with New Delhi is equally important for both Washington and Beijing, including in terms of its impact on the current state and future of U.S.-China relations. They are justifiably called "the most important bilateral relationship in the world", yet they have been increasingly marked by tension and competition over the past decade. In the virtual "U.S.-China-India" triangle, an objective situation has developed where each "corner" in one way or another influences the relations between the other two. In particular, there is an obvious interdependence between the U.S.-China and U.S.-India tracks, where turbulence in the former often causes increased momentum in the latter. This is well illustrated by the fact that since the mid-2010s, including during the first presidency of D. Trump, there has been accelerated growth in relations between the U.S. and India, and this process notably coincided with increasing U.S.-China rivalry. As the events of the early months of 2025 suggest, among the shared motivation for advancing the U.S.-India dialogue, the factor of jointly "balancing the Chinese challenge" will continue to play a role.

USA, India, Donald Trump, Chinese factor, Narendra Modi, Indo-Pacific region, security