US Congressman warns India ties cooling over tariffs, China challenge
Chicago: Influential American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi warned that the US–India relationship has entered a “cold and frigid” phase, cautioning that recent policy shifts risk undermining a partnership built painstakingly over three decades.
“I think the weather outside matches the best description of the US-India relationship that I can come up with right now — a little bit cold and frigid,” Krishnamoorthi said during his keynote address at the India Abroad Dialogue in Chicago.
He said the relationship “should be warm” and “continuing to rise in importance,” arguing that recent changes had moved it “for the worse,” despite India being “one of the largest economies in the world” and “the largest democracy in the world.”
Krishnamoorthi said India’s strategic value went beyond economics. “It’s also an incredibly important partner and friend,” he said, citing shared commitments to “equality, freedom, democracy, minority rights, secularism, free enterprise, and making sure that everybody in the world tries to observe what I call the international rules of the road.”
He sharply criticised the Trump administration’s tariff policy, calling a proposed 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods “arbitrary” and “capricious.”
“A 50 per cent tariff on India doesn’t make any sense. It has no basis in any kind of logic,” he said. “It appears to be the product of a Truth Social tweet, and that’s not how trade policy should be done.”
Krishnamoorthi said imposing higher tariffs on India than on China was strategically counterproductive. “When we are trying to counterbalance the influence of the CCP in this world, why would we ever want to push away our friends, partners and allies like India?” he asked.
He said China posed a “triple threat — economic, military and technological,” accusing Beijing of stealing intellectual property, flooding markets with subsidised goods, and weaponising monopolies for coercion. “That’s what they have done from steel to solar, to paper, to glass, to electric vehicles,” he said.
The Congressman also defended legal immigration, warning against calls to curtail it. “Legal immigration has been the goose that lays the golden eggs for this country,” he said. “We would not have a Dr Bharat Barai (an eminent Indian American from the area) here. We would not have my family in many of yours if we didn’t have a legal immigration system.”
Calling Indian Americans “the greatest export of India,” he said the five-million-strong community served as “bridge builders” between New Delhi and Washington.
Krishnamoorthi warned that anti-Indian sentiment was rising. “Just a few weeks ago, an elected official from Florida called for me to be deported,” he said, describing the rhetoric as “deeply disturbing.”
The US–India strategic partnership has expanded significantly since the early 2000s, encompassing defence cooperation, technology, and trade. Despite periodic political friction, both countries continue to view each other as central partners in balancing China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific.
A 10-city tour, the India Abroad Dialogue started in Detroit on Saturday. It is being held in partnership with the Foundation of India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS), the US Indian Community Foundation and several other community organisations.