Restraint best strategy as multipolar world reshapes India—China ties, says George Yeo

As US President Donald Trump’s new ‘Donroe doctrine’ accelerates the fragmentation of the global order into a multi-polar world, India and China are likely to work towards stabilising their relationship, while India’s best long-term strategy in its own neighbourhood lies in restraint, regional accommodation and preventing external powers from exploiting internal divisions, according to former Singapore foreign minister and strategic thinker George Yong-Boon Yeo (Photo).

- JAYANTA ROY CHOWDHURY & ARTI BALI

In an exclusive interview to UNI, Yeo said the reshaping world order would see India, China and Russia emerge as “countervailing forces”, even as the United States retreats to prioritising its near hemisphere and Europe is left to “take care of itself”. In such a setting, he argued, India and China, ancient civilisations with a deep mutual awareness, would be compelled by circumstance to steady their ties.

“Trump is fast-forwarding the future... towards multi-polarism,” Yeo said, adding that both India and China “doff their caps” to each other and therefore may well stabilise their relationship despite periodic tensions.

Yeo, who is in the capital to deliver the C.D. Deshmukh Memorial Lecture organised by the India International Centre, pointed out that at one time sections of India’s leadership believed the US would be its “principal ally” against China.

However, recent developments had altered that perception. Referring to the Pahalgam terror attack in Kashmir in April 2025, he noted that instead of backing India, President Trump invited Pakistan’s leadership to Washington within weeks, causing disquiet in New Delhi.

The former foreign minister said Trump had believed he could “browbeat India” over tariffs, but New Delhi did not yield. Similarly, tariff pressure on China failed when Beijing “played the rare earth card”, forcing Washington to pull back.