WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Ambassador to India Richard Verma warned that trade disputes, visa restrictions and rising anti-Indian sentiment in the United States are creating new pressure points in the U.S.-India relationship, even as he called the partnership one of the world’s most consequential.
Speaking at the Capitol Hill Summit 2026, organized by the U.S.-India Friendship Council, Verma said ties between Washington and New Delhi have grown dramatically over the past 25 years but are now entering a more uncertain period.
“I’d say the system is flashing a bit yellow,” Verma said.
Verma, who also served as deputy secretary of state, said few bilateral relationships have expanded as quickly or as deeply as U.S.-India ties since 2000.
“It would be hard for me to think of another bilateral relationship between the year 2000 and the year 2025 that has grown as much and as deep as the US and India,” he said.
Tracing the history of the partnership, Verma said relations reached low points during the 1970s and again after India’s 1998 nuclear tests before beginning a major transformation with President Bill Clinton’s visit to India in 2000.
“It was President Clinton who in the year 2000 said, ‘I want a different relationship with India,’” Verma said.
Verma said four pillars drove the relationship over the past two decades: people-to-people ties, security and defense, trade and economics, and clean energy.
He pointed to the rapid expansion of bilateral trade to more than $200 billion, along with major growth in defense cooperation and clean energy collaboration.
“We went from not a single defence exercise to now India doing the most defence exercises with the United States,” Verma said.
Still, Verma said several recent developments are raising concerns, including restrictions affecting Indian students and growing anti-Indian rhetoric online.
“There were 300 million views of 24,000 posts on X of anti-Indian hate,” he said, citing a recent study. “That is a flashing light for me.”
Verma also criticized tariff policies he said had hit India especially hard.
“India ends up with 50 per cent tariffs, higher than China, higher than any other country in the world,” he said.
Despite the challenges, Verma said he remains optimistic about the long-term direction of the partnership because of its deep institutional foundations and strong support from the Indian American community.
“We still care deeply about the relationship,” he said. “Continue to say it’s the most important and most consequential relationship we have.”
Verma also reflected on the 2008 U.S.-India civil nuclear agreement, saying the deal required a rare classified session of the U.S. Senate because India was not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
“It was the right thing to do,” he said. “And it showed how much we cared about this relationship.”
Verma served as U.S. ambassador to India from 2015 to 2017 under President Barack Obama and later served as deputy secretary of state for management and resources. He is currently chief legal officer and head of global public policy at Mastercard. (Source: IANS)
