Asia Needs a New Roadmap as Trump Tears Up the Old One

China and India must find ways to manage their differences while Asia puts guard rails in place to secure its future.

- Nirupama Rao

Mr Donald Trump's return to the White House is reshaping America and the world. The swift reimposition of tariffs, including on key Asian economies, signals that the United States has radically discounted the value of normative geopolitics, unleashing a deluge of uncertainty.

All this is outside the comfort zone of conventional diplomacy. It is about deglobalisation and economic coercion. "America First" recalls a 19th-century geometry of power, with unilateralism holding sway. Where have you gone, Pax Americana?

For Asia, this is a pivotal moment. The post-World War II assumption that US power would underwrite regional stability no longer holds. This is not a call to reject US presence in the region. America will remain a vital player. But we are faced with a harder question: If Washington is recasting its strategic priorities, then what does the future hold for the Indo-Pacific?

The answer is to be found among us, as Asians. And at the heart of the matter is the relationship between two of its largest powers—India and China.

INDIA AND CHINA: THE TEST CASE FOR ASIAN MATURITY

Today, there is a fragile equilibrium between India and China. However, despite wide differences—on borders, trade imbalances and competition for regional influence—both countries must avoid letting their rivalry derail the broader Asian project.

India and China are seen as opposites—rivals, competitors, strategic adversaries. And yet, in strategic terms, they are also uniquely similar. Both are continental and maritime powers, with blue-water navies, vast coastlines, critical island outposts and growing commercial stakes in Asia's sea lines of communication. India's geographic presence—from the Himalayas to the Andaman Sea—offers it leverage over both land corridors and oceanic choke points. China, too, stretches from continental Central Asia to the Western Pacific, with expanding maritime infrastructure and a blue-water naval footprint.