Donald Trump's presidency will mark a landmark shift in U.S. foreign policy not seen since the end of the Second World War, says former prime minister Stephen Harper.
"The Trump presidency is a major source of global uncertainty," Harper said Thursday in a speech in New Delhi, the speaking notes for which were obtained by The Canadian Press.
"We do not have a clear idea of where the new president will head, but we do have some broad outlines."
Harper said Trump is "going to reverse the cornerstone of seven decades of American foreign policy."
Trump's foreign policy will scale back U.S. involvement in global affairs and be guided by narrow economic interests, while coming to view China as a "geopolitical adversary," Harper added.
The speech comes on the eve of Trump's inauguration and represents Harper's most sweeping foreign policy pronouncement since he lost power in October 2015.
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Harper called Trump "a candidate without precedent in American history."
He said Trump rejects "that America alone must accept overarching responsibility for global affairs," and he says that's a notion that's in step with the views of the American public.
Harper said many in the world may not like this foreign policy shift, which will focus on "America's vital national interest, narrowly defined, especially its economic interests."
"It will work with friends and allies on shared interests, but only when such friends and allies are prepared to bring real assets to the table. That, by the way, is going to apply first and foremost to Europe."
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Harper said the U.S. global retreat will create significant risks and be the "first big game-changer in American foreign policy under Trump."
The second will be a major shift on China.
"Under Trump, the United States will cease to view the rise of China as benign," Harper said. "It is more profoundly concerned that the massive trade imbalance means America is financing the rise of a geopolitical adversary." ...
