One year of Modi 3.0: Complex foreign policy challenges in a chaotic Trump world

When Narendra Modi became Prime Minister for a third term in June 2024, Joe Biden was projected to be in a close race with Donald Trump for a second term in the White House, India's border standoff with China had been ongoing for four years, Sheikh Hasina had been at the helm of Bangladesh for 16 years, and in Pakistan, the army had propped up a new coalition government. Significantly, there had been no major attack by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists since February 2019.

- 

A year on, almost everything has changed. Trump has made a phenomenal political comeback, Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged in Ladakh, Hasina has been ousted from power, and India has had a four-day military confrontation with Pakistan after a massive terror attack targeted civilian tourists in Pahalgam.

Since he took charge as President in January, Donald Trump's actions have plunged the world into uncertainty.His tariffs on countries around the world have caused massive disruptions in trade and markets, and India has been pushed into negotiating a trade deal with the US. To signal intent to his domestic base, Trump has made a spectacle of the deportation of illegal immigrants — planeloads of Indians, too, have been returned in shackles. He has gone after universities like Harvard and Columbia and foreign students in the US, putting several Indian students under scrutiny and causing widespread concern.