'Don’t trust the United States': Economist Jeffery Sachs warns India not to be US pawn against China

India is fooling itself if it thinks Washington will treat it as a true ally, warns renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs. 

In a podcast with Hindustan Times, Sachs said punitive US tariffs and stalled trade promises reveal a blunt reality — “US politicians don’t care at all about India” and have no long-term strategic interest in building Indian-based supply chains.

“When I was in India in the spring, I said don’t count on some great trade relationship,” Sachs recalled. “What India has hoped for, I believe, is that it would be a good partner of the United States… to reduce its dependence on China and increase supply chains with India. I tried to explain, don’t count on that. The US is absolutely uninterested in Indian-based supply chains. Trump is uninterested in that. Trump is incapable of long-term strategic relations in any event.”

He dismissed the idea that India’s security lies in siding with Washington in the Quad alliance against China. “India is a great power… It should not find that standing against China or for the US,” he said. Instead, India should aim for “a true multi-polar world of mutual respect” — balancing ties with the US, China, Russia, the African Union, and other regions.

Sachs said he was skeptical from the start about US-India trade talks. “I’m not at all a fan of the Quad… This is the US playing games. It’s not in India’s interest to side with the US against China.”

On the recent US tariffs targeting India, his assessment was blunt: “What’s happening with these punitive tariffs is just exposing the basic truth… there is no strategic relationship between the US and India… The US aim is hegemony. It’s a delusion. The US is not a hegemon of the world. The US cannot dictate to the rest of the world.”

He described Washington’s political class as trapped in outdated dominance fantasies. “Spend a day in Washington, as I painfully do now and then. They’re filled with delusions… not about a great partnership with India, but about US primacy or full spectrum dominance.”

Sachs stressed this mindset is bipartisan. “What I’m saying is true whether it was Biden or Trump one, or whether it was Obama… But it’s especially true with Trump. He has no allies. He has no strategic partners. He has nothing but improvisation and short-termism.”

Accused by some in India of being “anti-American,” Sachs pushed back: “I was just trying to be realistic about the state of mind and the approach in Washington.”