India's Trade Policy

PRESS STATEMENT
India’s Trade Policy: Strategic Autonomy Is Not Negotiable
New Delhi | Press Release
India has always engaged with the world in good faith, mutual respect, and a rules-based international trading system. At the same time, history is clear and unequivocal: India does not yield to coercion, pressure, or threatening postures—economic or otherwise.
Recent developments and rhetoric surrounding trade and tariff negotiations with the United States have invited public discussion. It is important to place this in proper historical and strategic context.
During the late 1990s, under President Bill Clinton’s administration, India faced severe external pressure—ranging from sanctions to trade and technology restrictions. India did not bow then. Instead, the nation absorbed temporary challenges, strengthened domestic capacity, and emerged as a globally respected strategic power.
Today’s situation, though different in form, echoes a familiar pattern. Trade pressure, when expressed in a transactional or coercive tone, cannot override India’s sovereign right to protect its farmers, MSMEs, strategic industries, digital economy, and public interest policies.
India’s position is clear:
Engagement, not intimidation
Negotiation, not compulsion
Partnership, not pressure
India remains committed to constructive dialogue with the United States and all international partners. However, trade agreements must be balanced, reciprocal, and respectful of domestic priorities and parliamentary mandates.
India today is not the India of the 1990s.
It is a $3.5+ trillion economy, a global manufacturing and technology hub, a key pillar of the Indo-Pacific, and a nation with diversified trade and strategic partnerships.
No country—however powerful—benefits from a trade confrontation with India. Nor does India seek one. But India will never compromise its long-term national interest for short-term relief.
As a sovereign democracy and a civilisational state, India has consistently demonstrated that:
Temporary pressure can be endured; permanent surrender cannot.
India accepts challenges.
India responds with resilience.
India moves forward with confidence.
— END —