New Delhi : When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, when India succeeds, the world is more stable,” the remark evoked memories of US president Donald Trump’s assertion at the World Economic Forum in Davos that “when America booms, the whole world booms. India has risen, and Europe is truly glad about it. Her comments echoed a familiar strand of global leadership rhetoric once strongly associated with the United States. Speaking at Davos, Trump had cast America as the primary driver of global prosperity.
When America booms, the entire world booms. When it goes bad, you all follow us down,” Trump said, describing the United States as the world’s “economic engine” and arguing that global growth followed America’s fortunes. He highlighted what he called an “economic miracle” at home and urged other countries to raise living standards by emulating the US economic model. Shortly after Trump’s Davos speech, the European Parliament suspended the approval of a key US trade deal agreed in July in protest against Trump’s demand to take over Greenland.
Bernd Lange, trade committee chair, told reporters after a closed-door meeting with European Commission officials on Monday that the so-called Turnberry Agreement would be debated by parliamentary group representatives next Wednesday. “There are some elements which are going in the right direction, but also a lot of uncertainty,” Lange said, citing a lack of details over the Greenland agreement, which Trump has described as a “framework of a future deal”.
It comes at a time when the world is grappling with Trump’s tariffs and his repeated threats. What added to the global frustration was Trump’s desperate attempts to get Greenland despite having been clearly told that it is not for sale. Trump clearly isn’t very happy with the India-EU deal which was evident on Monday as Trump aide and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused Europe of indirectly funding the Russia-Ukraine war through energy trade routed via India.
However, it won’t be wrong to say that Trump’s tariff threats might have pushed New Delhi and Brussels might not have found the push they needed to reach the agreement. Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ursula, while delivering a joint statement, remembered to stress the global uncertainties and trade upheaval in the post-Trump era.
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