US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick schools, mocks and tries to bully us, and we laugh and applaud
US wants India’s total commitment, effectively forcing complete dependency
Some of Lutnik’s clearly objectionable and mocking messaging while participating remotely in India Today Conclave 2025 from Washington DC on Friday (words to the effect):
On India’s defence partnership with Russia: India has historically bought a significant amount of military equipment from Russia, “that has to end”
India’s bitter experience with US on defence cooperation, in comparison with Russia, France and United Kingdom: Don’t tell me you will feel safe and secure with Russian, French and British military equipment; American military and industrial complex has no comparison, it’s the greatest
Let’s have an “incredible” bilateral relationship, just India and United States of America, you cut tariffs on American goods and cut out the “noise” of the rest of the world
The ‘I’ in BRICS (grouping with its original members as Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) is not acceptable especially in the context of the grouping’s efforts to create a separate currency challenging the supremacy of US dollar as the economic currency of the world
India’s farm sector has to open up, it cannot remain closed; it needs to act “smartly”
What expectedly should have shocked the influential Indian audience gathered for the India Today Conclave 2025 at the Taj Palace Delhi to hear US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick speak on India-US relations on Friday, was surprisingly absorbed as humour and applauded.
In his live and exclusive interaction with India Today’s News Director Rahul Kanwal, while joining remotely from Washington DC, Lutnick, in typical Trump style plain-speak, apparently usurped the role of big brother in schooling, mocking and trying to bully India on a wide range of issues spanning trade, defence and overall bilateral relations. And yet we treated him like an honoured guest, occasionally laughing off his remarks and even applauding him.
Commenting on ongoing discussions between the two largest democracies, the US Secretary of Commerce did not mince words in driving home the point that the United States did not care what tariffs India imposed on goods from other countries. He was more concerned that India cut tariffs on American goods, emphasising that India stood to gain tremendously from an exclusive bilateral trade relationship with the world’s biggest and most consuming economy.
“But if you include the whole world in it, and you’re always worried about each and every country of the whole world and how that pieces together, it would be almost impossible (to strike a trade deal). So, we would like to focus on bilateral conversation just between India and the United States, bring down the tariff levels that India has that protects some of its areas,” he added.
“India has some of the highest tariffs in the world, and that will require a rethinking of the relationship, the special relationship, between India and the United States,” Lutnick said.
“The United States is interested in doing a macro, large-scale, broad-based trade agreement with India that takes everything into account, and that I think can be done. It will require a different kind of thinking, big thinking, things that your Prime Minister can do because your Prime Minister has a great relationship with President Trump,” the top Trump administration official stressed.
“It’s time to do something big, something grand, something that connects India and the United States together, but does it on a broad scale, not product by product, but rather the whole thing. Let’s bring India’s tariff policy towards America down, and America will invite India in and have really an extraordinary opportunity and relationship with us,” Lutnick said.
Lutnick also emphasised that the Indian agriculture sector “has to open up. It can’t just stay closed.”
“You have to act smarter when your most important trading partner (India-US bilateral trade touched a record $118.2 billion in the last financial year) is on the other side of the table. You can’t just say, oh its off the table. The right way to do business is to put everything on the table, but do it smartly, thoughtfully.
“Maybe certain products have quotas, maybe certain products have limits, maybe certain products you do in certain ways, and then we do the same thing on the other side, and we craft an agreement that is sensible between the two of us,” he said.
“Your government truly understands your market, and we understand ours. And the key is to try to find that place. So, yes, the Indian market for agriculture, it has to open up. It can’t just stay closed,” he asserted.
Apart from the issue of a trade agreement, Lutnick also touched upon India’s age-old defence ties with Soviet Union/Russia. He was emphatic in remarking that “India has historically bought significant amounts of its military equipment from Russia, and we think that is something that needs to end.”
He also stressed that US sees India’s involvement in the BRICS as an irritant. “India is the ‘I’ in BRICS, trying to create a currency to replace the dollar as the global economic currency. These kinds of things do not create the love and affection that we really, deeply feel towards India. We would like that to end, and we would like the trade to be fair,” he stated.
“We would like to create an incredible, and strong, and powerful relationship with India going forward, but those particular things for example are on the table for discussion and your tariffs which are among the highest in the world are on the table for discussion.
“But I think if we do it bilaterally between India and United States of America, and leave the noise of all the other countries, I think what you will see is we will come up with a great trade relationship with India that I think will help both India and America grow and prosper.”
He mocked at the suggestion that given India’s past experience with the US, how it could be relied upon for defence supplies, while Russia, France and United Kingdom have been more reliable, commenting “So, should you rely on France and Britain for your defence and for things that happened to you in the world! Oh, Come on! America is the greatest military and industrial complex, supplier, creator and builder in the world by so so far you would never ever suggest.
“France or the UK to be your supplier, and image choosing Russia, and yeah that would be a way to really create India’s comfort and independence! No no no! America is extraordinary. Its combat military gear is the greatest in the world, its technology is the greatest in the world.
“It is vital for India to stop listening to those silly people and come back and talk to the United States of America, which your Prime Minister did, and he did a great job when he was here. The key is, let’s form the best relationship between India and the United States, that is the key, that is important. And, that other stuff, of relying on others, is just noise,” he asserted.
