Why Indias Geopolitical Vision Has Shifted Away From The Us

TITLE: Why India’s geopolitical vision has shifted away from the US | DW News CHANNEL: DW News DATE: 2026-05-24 ---TRANSCRIPT--- Well, India and the United States are looking to hit reset on their relationship as the two countries negotiate a new trade deal. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated India’s strategic importance to Washington despite ties being at their most strained in two decades. Donald Trump’s tariffs on India, which hit 50% at one stage, have irritated New Delhi as well as Trump’s claims that he brokered a peace deal to end last year’s conflict between India and Pakistan. New US visa restrictions and the global energy crisis were also discussed as as Rubio was in India. Held up bilateral talks this Meera Shankar is India’s former ambassador to the United States and Germany. Ambassador, welcome to DW and thank you for your time. Tell us how serious is this particular moment in the history of US-India relations? I think the visit is significant because it comes after a year of turbulence in the relationship on account of the punitive tariffs which the US had imposed on India, on account of difficulties in people-to-people movement because of hardening US visa policy, on account of differences over claims of the US having brokered a ceasefire during the Indo-Pak conflict, and also on account of rising energy prices as a result of US military action in the Gulf. So, I think it’s at a difficult time that the visit comes. And you’ve run through some of the the factors contributing to the difficulties there. I I want to pick up on one of them, and that is tariffs. Could you explain in a little bit more detail how damaging exactly has Donald Trump’s trade tariff policy been to the broader relationship? Well, India was singled out for punitive tariffs of 50% uh 25% uh on trade account on reciprocal trade account and 25% on purchases of Russian oil. I think what was particularly galling was that uh these tariffs were not punitive tariffs were not imposed on China, the biggest purchaser of Russian oil, was not imposed on Turkey, another country which buys Russian oil, were not imposed on Europe. It was still buying perhaps more oil and gas than India was buying from Russia, but reducing it. So, uh it was as though India had been singled out and I think that didn’t go down well in India. Um so, it it was seen as something uh which was uh unexpected and unjustified in India. Now, both countries have been having trade discussions and during the visit of Secretary Pompeo, they have agreed to intensify their engagements with a view to concluding an interim deal at an early date. The difficulty here is that after the US Supreme Court struck down the reciprocal tariffs that President Trump had imposed, a uniform tariff of 10% has been imposed by President Trump on all countries while special investigations are going on on countries like India under Section 301 of the US Trade Act.

Exactly. And just to be clear for our audience, the 301 investigations are are US investigations into Indian uh trade practices that that India rejects. But, just I I I guess some countries might disagree with with you saying that India particularly was singled out. They they might feel the same, but just just to hone in on this, from India’s point of view, is the key issue the tariffs themselves or perhaps the uncertainty of how they’re imposed both at home and and elsewhere? I think it it makes our we are not really a major exporting nation. And for us actually, the US was an important market. So this introduces a level of un- you know, it makes Indian exports uncompetitive vis-a-vis other countries who might have lower tariffs. And B, it introduces an element of uncertainty in the trade. So I think that impacts trade as well. Right now, as I said, because the whole tariff policy of President Trump’s administration is in the melting pot, again there’s an uncertainty there. So that I think impacts the way the negotiations are also going because you want some clarity on how that policy is going to unfold in the future. Particularly relative you know, weightage to different countries. Thank you so much for your insights today, Ambassador. We’ve been speaking to Meera Shankar, India’s former ambassador to the US and Germany.