India, Jan. 7 -- Donald Trump has reiterated his tariff threat against India. The context is Russian oil. The fresh comments are as hypocritical as the additional tariffs were. Countries such as China do not face any such penalties. Trump's attitude to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict itself is also whimsical, perhaps even ambivalent. His approach to the rest of the world, as the latest US intervention in Venezuela shows, is reminiscent of the Wild West, not the hegemon of a rules-based global order. Where does all this leave India? What is the country's best response? There are no easy answers to this question. An amicable solution will require a pragmatic approach based on ground realities. Verbal provocations, unless they are matched by actual policy, should not be allowed to vitiate the ongoing economic dialogue over the trade deal in the works. This has to be driven by hard-headed economic considerations. Economically and strategically securing energy supplies has to be a part of this calculus. The economic dialogue has to be conducted with the awareness that the US under Trump has made a decisive pivot from the days of a deep-rooted Indo-US strategic alliance. Trump is more transactional than value-based, and temperamental - sometimes deliberately so - than reasoned in his engagements. It will be difficult for countries to decipher the signal from the noise in dealings with him and his country. Trump's mercurial and brazen approach is bound to create discord and a trust deficit in the world and eat into American power directly or indirectly. A transatlantic rupture, should he precipitate matters on things such as Greenland, could catalyse such a process. It is important for India to be invested in the cause of a rules-based order and keep multilateral engagement alive. The three points flagged above may appear to be inconsistent with each other to some. There is a good reason to believe that the pursuit of one might need some compromise on the others in the short run. The only way this inconsistency can be ironed out is by adding to India's own economic and strategic prowess. Augmenting this will require radical and far-reaching reforms. India has done well on reforms in times of crises. There is good reason to treat Trump's threats and actions vis-a-vis India and the world at large as the latest one. In short, an internal focus on building a strong and prosperous India could well address several external challenges....