NEW DELHI (Diya TV) — India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said the global economic landscape is shifting, and India is moving swiftly to deepen its trade relationships with open-market Western economies, following years of policy uncertainty sparked by tariffs and global protectionism.

Speaking at the Carnegie Global Technology Summit 2025 in New Delhi, Jaishankar emphasized that former U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs — including a 26% levy on Indian goods — forced India to reassess its openness to the global economy and rethink its long-term trade strategy.

“There was a certain skew in our openness,” Jaishankar said Friday, according to ANI, adding that the changing geopolitical environment offers India an opportunity to correct that imbalance and build more resilient partnerships with the U.S., European Union, and the U.K.

Jaishankar called the three ongoing trade negotiations with those Western powers “strategically important” and expressed confidence that, if concluded this year, the agreements would give India a much stronger foothold in global commerce. “I’d argue, we have an opportunity today … if we can focus on these three big [free trade agreement] negotiations, with the U.S., the European Union and the U.K., if these work out for us this year, we’d be in a different situation,” Jaishankar told attendees, as reported by The Hindu.

The External Affairs Minister also confirmed that India and the U.S. had conceptually agreed to pursue a bilateral trade agreement within a month of Trump’s return to the White House, with both sides setting an informal target for September to finalize the framework.

“There’s now a high degree of urgency,” he said, noting that India’s trade negotiation teams are “charged up” and moving faster than in past years. “It used to be said that we were slowing things down. Now, it’s the other way around,” Jaishankar remarked.

When asked about the reliability of the U.S. as a trade partner in an era of shifting policies, Jaishankar offered a note of cautious optimism. “I think they can be trusted — even when the other T is concerned,” he said, making a subtle reference to tariffs.

Jaishankar also addressed the global tug-of-war between technology and trade, asserting that tech now sits at the heart of U.S. strategic planning. “Tech is now central to America’s global strategy, and there’s a clear link between technology and the ‘Make America Great Again’ agenda,” he said, highlighting how both nations need to align their regulatory and economic systems for partnerships like the U.S.-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (ICET) to succeed.

In response to whether Trump’s “Make America Great Again” philosophy clashed with India’s push for economic self-reliance or atmanirbharta, Jaishankar pushed back. “I don’t see a contradiction,” he said, arguing that global trade shifts had been underway long before MAGA became a political rallying cry. He pointed to Brexit and a broader “deep anger” over unchecked globalisation, which, he said, had harmed small and medium enterprises worldwide through unfair dumping of low-cost goods.

Turning to Europe, Jaishankar observed that the continent’s geopolitical dynamics had changed dramatically over the past five years. “Europe had a balanced triangulation between the U.S., Russia, and China. Today, every side of that triangle is under stress,” he noted, while pointing to the increased frequency of India-EU engagement, including 21 European Commissioners visiting India in recent months.

Jaishankar also flagged China’s evolving technological influence as a major factor in the reshaping of global trade, calling it “gradual but consequential.” He suggested that China’s rise, alongside shifts in U.S. economic policy, would continue to redraw the boundaries of global commerce.