Jaishankar meets Kamala Harris’s NSA and Donald Trump’s top advisor

This marks India’s highest level of engagement with both Harris and Trump’s teams since the two leaders became the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.

Gordon, who is expected to get a top national security position if Harris is elected president, posted on X that it was “great” to meet Jaishankar this week. “We took stock of important progress in the U.S.-India relationship, including our growing defense and technology cooperation. We also discussed regional security issues in the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East and Europe.”

Jaishankar posted, on X, that it was good to see Gordon in Washington DC. “Appreciated the conversation on our bilateral ties and various global developments.”

Jaishankar’s engagement with Trump’s team was not made public. But HT has learnt that the minister met a top Trump advisor, who served in a key position during Trump’s first term. Both sides exchanged views on global developments, with the Republican side expressing Trump’s continued commitment to stronger India-US ties.

Gordon is an expert on Europe and West Asia and served in both the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama administrations. During a think-tank stint in the past, he has visited India. He was an early backer of Harris during her 2020 presidential run and served as a foreign policy advisor on her campaign. When she became VP, Gordon was first her deputy NSA before becoming her top advisor.

In his current role, Gordon has been increasingly engaged with Indo-Pacific issues. As VP, Harris has visited Indo-Pacific region four times. She is understood to have played a role in initial exploratory meetings with Japan and South Korea that led to first the US-Japan-South Korea trilateral at Camp David in 2023, and then with Japan and Philippines that led to the first US-Japan-Philippines trilateral earlier this year.

Harris’s approach to China will be guided, according to those familiar with her worldview, by an emphasis on preserving the “rules-based order” and respecting international law. This is distinct from Biden’s emphasis on framing the US-China competition as one between democracies and autocracies in principle. In practice though, observers believe that it will translate into broad continuity with the Biden administration’s strong approach to China particularly on questions of free and open Indo Pacific, economic practices and technology, and strengthening of alliances and partnerships in the region where India will continue to play a key role. In the past, Harris has, however, been critical of India’s human rights record.

The Trump campaign’s foreign policy approach has been articulated in the Republican platform approved at the party’s convention in Milwaukee and in a foreign affairs piece by Trump’s former NSA Robert C O’Brien. In his piece, O’Brien categorically called out China’s threat to American interests and advocated an approach that rested on “peace through strength”.

The Trump administration between 2016 and 2020 was the first to recognise China as an adversary. It imposed tariffs on China in a trade war. It revived Quad at the official and then ministerial level, and it strengthened the defence and security partnership with India. Trump also supported India in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror strikes and during India’s Balakot response. If elected, while observers don’t discount Trump’s ability to shift positions and strike a deal with China, his position and that of the Republican leadership and base has been staunchly hawkish on China so far, particularly on Beijing’s economic practices and aggressive intent in the region.

During his visit to the US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not meet either Harris or Donald Trump, despite Trump publicly suggesting that Modi was “coming to meet” him. Modi has had two in-person meetings with Harris, in September 2021 and in June 2023 when the VP hosted a lunch for PM Modi at the State Department and fondly recalled her Indian roots. The PM shared a personal relationship with Trump during his years in office, hosting him in India in February 2020 and attending a major rally in Houston along with Trump in 2019.