Renowned economist warns India against falling into US foreign policy traps; urges New Delhi and Beijing to forge unity for a balanced multipolar world.
Prominent economist and global sustainability advocate Jeffrey D. Sachs has cautioned India against aligning too closely with the United States, warning that Washington’s unilateral tariff decisions under current President Donald Trump are destabilising global trade and eroding multilateral governance structures.
The Columbia University professor said India should resist being drawn into Washington’s confrontational posture towards China. Instead, Sachs advised India and China – together representing 40 percent of the world’s population – to collaborate and restore stability in an increasingly fragmented international order. He was speaking on April 8 during a session on ‘The Sachs Doctrine’ at the Rising Bharat event organised by News18.
“The US wants to use India to beat up China. Don’t play the American game,” Sachs said, arguing that India’s stature as the world’s most populous country and a rising economic power made it unsuitable for alliance-driven geopolitics. “India is too big for the US game. US foreign policy is to divide and rule for every country in the world.”
He sharply criticised the Trump administration’s use of emergency powers to impose tariffs, calling it an illegal bypass of the US Congress. “This is trade policy, this is no emergency, this isn’t a hurricane. This is normal economics, which is why we have a Congress,” he said. Sachs expressed concern that the United States was veering away from its constitutional checks and balances and warned of “a one-man show” destabilising the global economic order.
Emphasising on the importance of India’s global role, particularly in institutions like the United Nations, Sachs said it was imperative for China to back India’s inclusion as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, a step he deemed vital for a more representative and effective multilateral system. “It makes no sense to have a Security Council without India being a permanent member,” he asserted.
Encouraging closer Indo-China cooperation, Sachs said the two Asian powers could jointly offer a model of global diplomacy rooted in peace, open trade, and sustainability. “Settle your issues, because between the two of you, you are 40 percent of the world population. You could actually help to run a very decent world together,” he said.
The economist argued that the United States’ increasingly unilateral trade actions – like tariffs imposed under executive orders – could trigger a global economic backlash. He criticised the use of emergency provisions to shape economic policy, stating, “The right to levy duty in the US belongs to the Congress, not to the President.”
Expanding on his concerns, Sachs said the definition of “emergency” had been dangerously stretched. “Now what he calls an emergency is anything that Donald Trump wants to call an emergency,” he said. “So he calls our trade deficit an emergency. Well, no, it has been around for 20-some years. It has deep economic causes. It is not exactly an emergency… We are profoundly destabilised in the US right now because we have a one-person rule.”
“American friendships have ended up destroying countries. India should be careful, there is no alliance,” Sachs added, warning New Delhi of becoming entangled in Washington’s power games.
Sachs advocated for a multipolar world, adding, “The US is in kind of a neurotic reaction”. He added that India is on track to become the world’s second-largest economy within 10 to 15 years.
Source: www.moneycontrol.com