india

Updated: Nov 22, 2017 09:14 IST

President Donald Trump’s “America First” vision is “not at the exclusion of the rest of the world” and the United States remain engaged with others, said a senior administration official on Tuesday at a news conference to preview White House adviser Ivanka Trump’s upcoming visit to India.

Most governments “prioritize” people of their own country, the official, who could not be identified under the rules of the briefing, added, but that “doesn’t mean they operate in a vacuum and aren’t very engaged in the rest of the globe and the US is clearly a leader in that capacity and will remain a leader in that capacity”.

The official was replying to a question if President Trump’s America First policy clashed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” programme, in the context of the upcoming Global Entrepreneurial Summit India and the US are co-hosting in Hyderabad starting November 28.

Speaking briefly in the phone call-conference, Ivanka Trump, who is leading the US delegation as adviser to the President, said she was “incredibly excited” about the visit, and that she looks forward to meeting Prime Minister Modi and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj.

Trump will be there with Modi at the inauguration ceremony on November 28 and then appear at two panel discussions at the summit, which is themed on women entrepreneurs, the next day on issues of innovations, skill and training.

“We continue to be very engaged all over the world,” the official, said, adding, “having an America First philosophy is not exclusive of collaboration, partnership and strong economic, security and social relationships around the world.”

President Trump’s America First vision has been a cause of concern around the world taken to signal isolationism and unilateralism as has been reflected in the US pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris Accord on climate change, and threatening other multilateral groupings.

For India, it has meant pressure to cut trade deficit with the United States, and tightening of the rules applying to H-1B non-immigration work visa for high skilled workers and intense scrutiny on top Indian IT companies operating in the United States, in a move blessed by the White House.

On questions about reports of beggars being removed by Hyderabad local authorities in view of Trump’s visit, officials on the news conference call said they were “surprised” but added it was for the local authorities to answer.

To a question about intolerance of dissent, of all kinds, officials said that the US response to that had been noted in the reports on the state of human rights and other such annual findings and that the country has a rich heritage of diversity and the matter was a subject of vigorous debate internally.