Bullying won't work: Kanwal Sibal tells US after Nick Burns warns Trump is driving India away
Kanwal Sibal argued that the balance of power has shifted. "The US is weaker than in the past and we are stronger than in the past. We will stand our ground without getting into polemics.
- Sep 9, 2025,
- Updated Sep 9, 2025 12:27 PM IST
Former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal on Tuesday rejected U.S. pressure on India's foreign policy, saying Washington must understand New Delhi will never compromise its independence. His comments came after former U.S. ambassador to China Nicholas Burns warned that President Donald Trump’s tariff war was pushing India closer to Beijing and Moscow.
"As a recent US ambassador to China he understands what the longer term stakes for the US are. Reducing relations to India to tariffs reflects the absence of any larger geopolitical vision," Sibal wrote in a post on X.
"Seeking control of our foreign policy shows an utter lack of understanding of the fundamentals of our approach to foreign relations. We showed decades ago when we were economically weak that we will have an independent foreign policy. Nonalignment reflected that," he said.
Sibal argued that the balance of power has shifted. "The US is weaker than in the past and we are stronger than in the past. We will stand our ground without getting into polemics. Bullying won’t work. Friendship based on mutual respect and building on shared interests will," he added.
He cautioned Washington against underestimating the cost of devaluing ties. "India values ties with the US but if Trump wants to devalue them the US will realise its mistake."
Burns, now a Harvard professor, said Trump’s 50% tariff on Indian imports was the most serious foreign policy error of his presidency. In a podcast interview, he said the decision had forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to turn to Beijing, pointing to his meeting with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.
"If we want to be strategic about this, we've got to think of the world we want to live in…and your little kids and my grandchildren will want to live in 15, 20, 30 years from now. We should want to have India on our side because China's going to be a competitor with the United States," Burns said. "This mistake of driving India away from us, it's about the most serious mistake that I think President Trump has made since he took office. And that is saying something."
Burns said every U.S. president since Bill Clinton had treated India as a strategic priority to balance China. "Every American president, Democrat and Republican, going back to Bill Clinton, has made a concerted effort, a real national priority, to grow closer to India so that we can have some leverage on China. … Suddenly President Trump has put the issue of tariffs beyond our national security."
He warned that Trump's policies put joint military exercises, the QUAD partnership, and decades of strategic cooperation at risk. "We don't want that to be at risk because suddenly we're challenging India economically in a way that's going to be very injurious to them. Well, I mean this is an own goal, right?"
Former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal on Tuesday rejected U.S. pressure on India's foreign policy, saying Washington must understand New Delhi will never compromise its independence. His comments came after former U.S. ambassador to China Nicholas Burns warned that President Donald Trump’s tariff war was pushing India closer to Beijing and Moscow.
"As a recent US ambassador to China he understands what the longer term stakes for the US are. Reducing relations to India to tariffs reflects the absence of any larger geopolitical vision," Sibal wrote in a post on X.
"Seeking control of our foreign policy shows an utter lack of understanding of the fundamentals of our approach to foreign relations. We showed decades ago when we were economically weak that we will have an independent foreign policy. Nonalignment reflected that," he said.
Sibal argued that the balance of power has shifted. "The US is weaker than in the past and we are stronger than in the past. We will stand our ground without getting into polemics. Bullying won’t work. Friendship based on mutual respect and building on shared interests will," he added.
He cautioned Washington against underestimating the cost of devaluing ties. "India values ties with the US but if Trump wants to devalue them the US will realise its mistake."
Burns, now a Harvard professor, said Trump’s 50% tariff on Indian imports was the most serious foreign policy error of his presidency. In a podcast interview, he said the decision had forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to turn to Beijing, pointing to his meeting with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.
"If we want to be strategic about this, we've got to think of the world we want to live in…and your little kids and my grandchildren will want to live in 15, 20, 30 years from now. We should want to have India on our side because China's going to be a competitor with the United States," Burns said. "This mistake of driving India away from us, it's about the most serious mistake that I think President Trump has made since he took office. And that is saying something."
Burns said every U.S. president since Bill Clinton had treated India as a strategic priority to balance China. "Every American president, Democrat and Republican, going back to Bill Clinton, has made a concerted effort, a real national priority, to grow closer to India so that we can have some leverage on China. … Suddenly President Trump has put the issue of tariffs beyond our national security."
He warned that Trump's policies put joint military exercises, the QUAD partnership, and decades of strategic cooperation at risk. "We don't want that to be at risk because suddenly we're challenging India economically in a way that's going to be very injurious to them. Well, I mean this is an own goal, right?"