WASHINGTON: India’s re-elected government and its new foreign minister S Jaishankar will have tricky trade and defence strategy issues to navigate with the United States despite continued uptick in relations, following the Trump administration’s give-no-quarter approach to ties with even its best allies and partners. On top of the list is India’s decision to go ahead with purchase of the S-400 missile defence system from Russia, a call a senior administration official told reporters on Thursday would have serious implications for ties between the two countries. The official, who previewed ties with the returning dispensation in New Delhi is a broadly positive light, also said it is all but inevitable that India would lose access to preferential trade terms under the latter’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme that gives tariff breaks to less developed countries. But it is India’s purchase of S-400, Russia’s most advanced long-range surface-to-air missile defence system, that Washington is trying to ward off for a variety of reasons. They range from whittling down New Delhi’s dependence on Moscow and selling more of American arms, to fears that its own systems may be compromised or shown up if India locks into the Russian system. Acknowledging that…