New Delhi: Terming 2017 as a “dangerous year”, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd today said the global economic order will change under US President-elect Donald Trump, even as the US will witness a shift in its policy towards China and Russia.
Calling this two sets of policy departures, Rudd said Trump’s focus was normalisation of relations with Russia as well as altering its ties with China.
“The President of the United States has been voted in the office on the basis of normalising relations with Russia and identifying Russia as a strategic long-term partner. This move has turned the US Presidential, foreign and national security policy, which has existed more or less since 1945, on its head. Trump does not see Russia as a long term threat in making America great again,” he said.
Rudd was speaking at Raisina Dialogue 2017.
The former Australian PM said, for the first time since 1972, the cornerstone of the US-China policy relationship ‘the One China Policy’ has been thrown up into the air rather than being taken as a given into the relationship.
He said Trump’s comments on China related to One-China Policy, Chinese cyber attacks and its trade have not remained confined to election, but have escalated beyond that.
“President Trump sees this as a bargaining chip with People’s Republic of China,” he said.
Rudd said the WTO may also see a change in US position considering Trump’s nationalist and protectionist agenda.