‘India Will Apologise and Seek Deal With Trump’: US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Modi-Trump Equation | Video

New Delhi: With India–US trade tensions running high, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg TV on Friday that India will eventually seek to patch things up with President Donald Trump.

“In a month or two, India will come to the negotiating table, they will apologise and look to strike a deal with Donald Trump. Once that happens, it will be on Trump’s desk and it will be his decision how to deal with Prime Minister Modi. That is why he is the President,” Lutnick remarked.

Backdrop of Trump’s Comments on India

His statement follows a strongly worded post by Trump earlier in the day, where he suggested Washington was losing ground with its traditional partners. Writing on Truth Social, Trump said:

“Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest China. May they have a long and prosperous future together.”

The post was accompanied by a photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the recently concluded Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit hosted by China.

Asked about Trump’s remarks, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters at the weekly briefing: “I have no comments to offer on this post at the moment.”

India’s Response to Tariffs

Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government is preparing a relief package for exporters affected by steep US tariffs.

“We cannot leave our exporters high and dry. There is a package with multiple components that will soon be announced once it gets Cabinet approval,” Sitharaman said in an interview with Network18.

She stressed that sudden shifts in trade markets are challenging, and the government intends to support businesses so they can withstand the tariff pressure and avoid disruptions such as delayed payments or cancelled orders.