A former top US trade official is praising India’s calm handling of recent tensions with the United States over trade issues. Raymond Vickery, who once served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for trade development, called New Delhi’s approach “good and disciplined” in an exclusive interview with in Washington.
Vickery, now a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) focusing on India and emerging Asia economics, gives credit to leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. “To the credit of those policymakers from Modi, Jaishankar right on down, the discipline in the message has been very laudable,” he said. Instead of cutting ties amid the disputes, India has stayed steady, he added.
This comes as US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer described India’s stance in ongoing trade negotiations as “pragmatic.” Speaking at a New York event on Tuesday, Greer noted that the two sides have been talking since the start of the administration. “The Indians are being pragmatic. We have actually been having conversations with the Indians from day one… It’s where we’re trying to negotiate a deal,” he said, referring to the 50% tariff rate, half of which ties back to reciprocal trade measures.
Still, Vickery warns that the past eight or nine months under President Donald Trump’s administration have damaged US-India relations. “This has been… really a disaster for the upward slope of international relations between the US and India, and has thrown us backward,” he said. The two countries cooperate in key areas like technology, military, health, and energy, but Trump’s “transactional approach” risks hurting that progress across the board.
Vickery points to Prime Minister Modi’s August visit to China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit as a sign that India is exploring other partners. With tariffs hitting hard, he says, the US is pushing New Delhi toward alternatives like Russia, China, and even BRICS nations. “These tariffs, in the sledgehammer approach, the transactional approach really do drive India toward China, toward Russia and toward finding any alternatives to the US relationship,” Vickery explained.
On the Trump team’s mixed signals about its China strategy, Vickery sees a short-term win for India since both face similar pressures. But he cautions about bigger problems down the line, especially with India-China border tensions. A potential US-China “grand bargain” could even sideline India’s security needs, like freedom of navigation for shipping in key seas, he added.
Despite the challenges, Vickery hopes India steps up to fill the “power vacuum” left by the “America First” policy. “I would hope that India would see the power vacuum and the diplomatic vacuum… and step up in accordance with Indian values of democracy, in terms of cooperation on economic development,” he said, urging a broader role for New Delhi on the global stage.
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