New Delhi: United States Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick Monday hit out at purchases of Russian arms by India and its BRICS membership while declaring that the US will sign a trade deal with India in the “not too distant future”.
“Your [Indian] growth rate is amazing. But, you know, there were certain things that the Indian government did that generally rubbed the United States the wrong way. For instance, you generally buy your military gear from Russia,” Lutnick said.
On Monday, Lutnick was delivering an address at a leadership summit hosted annually by the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF). The 2025 summit is taking place at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Washington, D.C.
“That is a way to get, you know, under the skin of America—if you are going to buy your armaments from Russia. So, I think that India is starting to move towards buying their military equipment from the United States, which then will go a long way,” Lutnick said.
“These kinds of things, just creating that relationship, [or] being a part of BRICS, right, which is, oh, let us move not to support the dollar and its hegemony,” he further said, hitting out at the membership of India in the multilateral grouping, which has been exploring de-dollarisation.
For Lutnick, this is not the “way to make friends and influence people” in the US.
US President Donald Trump has also urged India to buy more from American defence platforms as a means to reduce the trade deficit between the two countries, going so far as to publicly offer F-35 fighter jets during a White House visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February this year.
However, it was the US that imposed an arms embargo on India first in 1965, following its second war with Pakistan. The embargo continued for decades till the US rescinded it in the last few years.
Starting from the 1970s, followed by the 1980s and the early 2000s, the US was one of the largest suppliers of arms, including F-16 fighter jets and advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles (AMRAAMS), to Pakistan. Pakistan has used both against India in various conflicts.
During the American embargo on India, the USSR was the other big arms producer. The Soviet Union was also willing to sell its defence platforms to India, and the nearly seven decades of New Delhi-Moscow military ties have since continued.
The Russian S-400 surface-to-air missiles, which became an integral part of the Indian air defence, came into use during the May skirmish between New Delhi and Islamabad last month.
It is not the first time that Lutnick has raised these particular issues.
In March this year, Lutnick demanded India stop purchasing weapons from Russia, highlighting it as an irritant for the New Delhi-Washington D.C. ties.
Trump, on the other hand, promised to heavily tariff the BRICS economies if they continued with their “de-dollarisation”.
India downplayed the BRICS talks on the alternatives to the dollar, which also has Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa, Indonesia, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE as members.
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On trade
Lutnick is optimistic that the India-US trade deal will soon be ready. As the largest export market for Indian goods, the US has flagged its trade deficit with India as an issue.
“But what I hope to achieve is that we would like market access … our businesses to have reasonable access to the markets of India. Now, it is not going to be everything, and it is not going to be everywhere, but we want to have the trade deficit reduced … and we have managed, I think, to be in a very, very good place. And you should expect a deal between the United States and India in the not-too-distant future,” said Lutnick.
The completion of such deals is racing against the 8 July deadline, when the temporary pause on reciprocal tariffs by the US administration will expire.
Indian and American leaders first announced the negotiations for the trade deal in February of this year during Modi’s visit to Washington, D.C.
Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, on Monday, said New Delhi and Washington, D.C., are looking to give preferential market access to businesses from their respective countries.
Goyal met with Lutnick twice last month in an attempt to push the talks forward.
Lutnick highlighted Monday that some industries, especially “advanced manufacturing”, will be incentivised to bring factories back to the US, whereas others will be encouraged to invest in India.
The comments by the commerce secretary came after US President Trump last month called on Apple to ‘make in America, ‘ not in India, for products released in the US market. Trump further threatened to impose tariffs on Apple if it continued to offshore its manufacturing to India.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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Indian social media abuses US everyday while its leaders want US investments. Dominating and selfish China or untrustable US which alliance India chooses will determine the next 25 years.