India sees US relations at ‘best’ despite looming tariff threat

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the first world leaders to meet Trump after he returned to the White House

India’s top diplomat said relations with the US are on firm footing in comments that come as New Delhi looks to lower tariffs on imports to fend off President Donald Trump’s threatened reciprocal levies that could upend bilateral and global trade.

“Our relations with the US are probably the best they have been,” external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said Wednesday at Chatham House — a London-based independent policy institute.

India’s trade minister is holding conversations with his US counterparts, the minister said. Trump told a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday that many nations, including India, set tariff rates too high and reiterated they will be hit by reciprocal levies that take effect from April 2.

Jaishankar said Trump’s priorities such as keeping global energy prices stable worked in favor of India. “I think that offers a lot of possibilities.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the first world leaders to meet Trump after he returned to the White House. During Modi’s visit in February, the two sides agreed to negotiate the first tranche of a multi-sector trade deal by the fall of this year.

Modi’s trip followed years of deepening ties between the US and India, which Washington has been cultivating as a regional counterweight against a more assertive China.

To lessen a possible blow from Trump’s reciprocal levies, officials in New Delhi have also been discussing reducing duties for automobiles, some agricultural products, chemicals, critical pharmaceuticals, as well as certain medical devices and electronics, Bloomberg reported last week citing people familiar with the matter.

Jaishankar highlighted the South Asian nation’s role in mediating between Russia and Ukraine behind closed doors. As the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine was under attack, India passed along messages between the two capitals, the minister said.