00:00this announcement yesterday. What do you make of it? What is your reaction to it?
00:07Well, it sends a very positive psychological message to the investment and trading communities
00:12in both of our great democracies. So I'm very happy about it. As the president of a 50-year-old
00:18trade association dedicated to the growth of U.S.-India business ties and investment,
00:24this is perfect. This is exactly what the business community wants. And we're very,
00:28very happy that Prime Minister Modi and President Trump have issued this great announcement. So
00:33we will now look to see what the details are. Obviously, there'll be some form of joint statement
00:38in the next few days. There may be some federal register notices to look for. So we will look
00:43for delight in the details to see what is there and what implications it will have for business. But
00:48this is very positive, Rina. Now, if we talk about the business leaders or the organizations that are
00:57part of USIBC, what is the mood within businesses, especially U.S.-based businesses in India?
01:07Yeah. So there's a lot of optimism. Look, business craves predictability. The old saying is that capital
01:15is a coward. It wants the safest possible path. And I think that there's, of course, this feeling that
01:20trade follows the flag. So if our two great nations have come to this agreement, then it gives a lot of
01:26positivity to business, a lot of impetus. As I said, we have to look at the details. We have to see what
01:31exact commitments have been made by both governments. But I really applaud the two
01:38governments for the work that they've done. This has been a long negotiation, almost a year. A lot of
01:44work has gone into it. There's been a great deal of serious effort by both governments, and I applaud
01:50them for that. I applaud ambassadors Gore and Quatra for their roles in leading all of this, Minister Goyle,
01:58Ambassador Greer, and of course, our leaders themselves. So, you know, what we need to see now is exactly what
02:05details will allow businesses to operatize this. As our president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Suzanne Clark,
02:12said in her congratulatory message yesterday, now businesses need to step up and see how they can implement
02:18this agreement. For that, we'll need a little more detail. Right. Now, you did talk about, you know,
02:25all the players who actually took this to the finish line. The deal is done. It is being papered as of now.
02:34Who really pushed this to the finish line? Well, look, the old saying is that victory has a thousand
02:41fathers and mothers. So I don't want to start singling out people. But I would say that, you know,
02:46for Ambassador Gore, this is a real special moment. He's been in India just for a few days,
02:51and he has clearly had a very catalytic impact on helping drive this through. He clearly has
02:57access in the Oval Office to President Trump. So I congratulate him. I congratulate Ambassador Quatra
03:03for having given a very sober view and detailed and expert view to Prime Minister Modi. I think they've
03:10done a lot of good work to try to drive this across the finish line. But for me, this is the beginning
03:16of many chapters to come. You know, one of the reasons I left government service and went into
03:21the private sector was my feeling that the strategic relationship was far outpacing the economic
03:28relationship and that the U.S.-India trade and business relationship was woefully underpowered
03:33compared to our relations with Canada, Mexico, the EU, even with China, with which we have some
03:38strategic issues. So the work of US-IBC these past few years, and indeed for the past 50 years,
03:44has to argue for ambition in our trade relations. You'd be surprised to know, Rina, that there have
03:49been almost no trade and economic agreements between the United States and India in our 75
03:54years of bilateral relations. I think we have an open skies treaty, and that's about it. So this I view
04:01as phase 1A of what could be many more agreements to come that will concretize and create greater
04:09predictability in our relationship such that we can hit $500 billion a year in bilateral trading goods
04:15and services, and vault India-U.S. trade into the front ranks of global prosperity.
04:21Now, you did mention that nothing like this has happened before in the 75 years of partnership
04:28between the two nations. This, of course, took time, less than 18 years, the way the India-EU
04:35negotiations happened. Now, if we talk about the tougher negotiator here, who do you think it was?
04:42Was it the Trump administration or the Modi government? And who really was the deal in this deal?
04:49Well, I'm revealing my age, but I've been witness to and party to US-India negotiations since,
04:57I think, 25 or 26 years ago. And I will tell you, both sides are pretty tough and expert and bring
05:05armadas of lawyers and experts with them. This is not like our negotiations with some other countries
05:10that just sign whatever we give them. This is a very different ballgame with India. I've found
05:15Indian negotiators to be tough, knowledgeable, very disciplined, very clear on what their nation
05:23needs and the interests of their nation. And that is, of course, true about American negotiators.
05:28But at the end of the day, any deal between our two great nations is always going to be a win-win
05:33deal. It's going to be one that is good for both countries and good for our free people. So I'm not
05:40going to characterize which negotiator was tougher. I think they came to a great outcome. And I wish them
05:49great success. I hope that their positive vision is achieved fully. And I'm looking forward to seeing
05:55what the details are so that the business community can then put their shoulder behind it.
06:01Well, now the last few months have been, you know, there have been ups and downs. There have been some
06:07hiccups. Of course, these are being ironed out. But the public perception is totally different from
06:13what really happened inside. Now, if we talk about Quad, nothing really stopped in Quad, except for the
06:20leader summit. That didn't happen. But do you think that the Quad is probably going to reset with
06:26a leader summit in the days ahead? Well, let's see what the two leaders say. But here's my analogy for
06:33all of this. When a negotiation begins, and I think back to the era of the nuclear deal, you know,
06:39everything across the waterfront of the bilateral relationship kind of gets put on pause. You know,
06:46you don't cook things on the front stove. You sort of put them in the warming oven while you wait for
06:51the main negotiation to be concluded. You can do a lot of good work in background. The governments
06:56keep friendly relations. They work on critically important things like counterterrorism and law
07:01enforcement and, you know, other things. But a lot of initiatives sort of just wait until the main
07:07negotiation is concluded. So in a way, there's been a pause button that's been hit on U.S.-India relations
07:13for almost a year since the Prime Minister visited the White House in February of 2025.
07:18Now that pause button is stopped and the play button is going to get hit. And when the play button hits,
07:23I think we're going to see movement on very important things where we have a shared perspective
07:29and shared strategic goals. One example immediately is the Critical Minerals Summit, where Minister
07:36Jaishankar is in town. He's meeting Secretary Rubio today and then attending the summit tomorrow.
07:41That's where the U.S. and India have an almost complete commonality of views. Then there's
07:45things like defense production, which is very important in this era of geostrategic uncertainty.
07:51We've got to look at artificial intelligence, where India is hosting a giant summit in a couple
07:56of days. We've got semiconductor production to worry about, supply chain risks, APIs for pharmaceuticals,
08:03where we urgently need to ensure that our people can remain healthy by mitigating supply chain
08:09exposures and risks and much else besides. So like nuclear renaissance, all of these things,
08:15I think the play button will now get hit and we'll see a lot of movement and that can include the quad.
08:22Now, in conclusion, how do you see this relationship go forward? I mean, the last 24 hours,
08:30there is an upbeat mood altogether. You know, things are reset in a way. What comes ahead?
08:40Well, I put an op-ed in the Hindustan Times a few weeks ago where I said we need to focus
08:44on the nuclear renaissance and the whole energy picture. We have to figure out the emerging
08:50technologies of the 21st century. If the great democracies can't figure that out, then our enemies
08:55will. We need to urgently look at defense production for mutual deterrence. And there's much else besides
09:02the nuclear renaissance, as I mentioned earlier, the quad. There's so much homework that's been pending
09:07while this negotiation was ongoing. Now that this negotiation has come to an agreement, I think a lot
09:13of that urgent work needs to continue. Our shared strategic adversaries do not sleep and we cannot sleep
09:20either. So we have urgent business. I'm delighted Minister Jai Shankar is in Washington today meeting
09:25Secretary Rubio. That is good and proper and makes me happy as the head of US IBC. I want to see the
09:32U.S. and India be very ambitious in their bilateral relations for the shared security and prosperity of
09:38all of our 1.8 billion people. So this is a great day, Reena, and I'm very, very pleased.
09:44Great. Thank you so much for talking today, and I really appreciate your time.
09:48It's a pleasure. I wish you a great day.
Comments