Former India ambassador to France Jawed Ashraf on Saturday rejected the idea that India needs to align with competing international camps, saying, New Delhi must act on the basis of its values and national interests.

His comments came day after US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said India must pick between supporting Washington or aligning with Russia and China.

“Either support the dollar, support the United States of America, support your biggest client, who is the American consumer, or I guess you’re going to pay a 50% tariff. And let’s see how long this lasts,” Lutnick said in an interview to Bloomberg.

Upholding India’s independent foreign policy, Jawed Ashraf said, “Indians and India need to get out of this mindset that either we have to be in one camp or we have to be in another camp. We are not a small, weak country that needs these crutches in our external relationships,” news agency ANI reported.

He added, “We are a country that can stand in our corner, act in accordance with our values, our principles, and our interests, and have the capacity to conduct our relations with not just major powers, but even if they have differences among themselves, we will deal with each relationship on the strength of its merit.”

“We never act against one country for another country or on behalf of one country against another,” ANI quoted former US envoy as saying.

Ashraf’s remarks followed US President Donald Trump’s recent comments suggesting that Washington had “lost India to China.” However, the Republican President later clarified he had not “lost” India, instead he was dissatisfied with India’s Russian oil imports.

“I don’t think we have. I’ve been very disappointed that India would be buying so much oil from Russia. I let them know that,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

He added, “We put a very big tariff on India, 50 per cent, very high tariff. I get along very well with PM Modi, as you know. He was here a couple of months ago, in fact, we went to the Rose Garden and had a press conference.”

Currently, the US has imposed a 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods, with another 25 per cent specifically linked to Russian oil imports.

‘Lowering of temperature’ in talks

Despite the tensions, Ashraf noted signs of progress in bilateral dialogue. “These are early days. We still have to wait and watch. But we have seen in this statement and some of the statements that have been made in the past few days are a definite lowering of temperature,” he said.

Ashraf reminded that India has always opposed third-party involvement in its disputes, particularly with Pakistan. “Those who have a long history of dealing with India in the US will always remember that India has always rejected third-party mediation or role in any relationship or any issue between India and Pakistan,” he said.

India’s position on Russia and China

Recalling past tensions over India’s defence ties with Moscow, Ashraf highlighted that Washington had earlier pressed India to abandon the S-400 missile deal.

“US-Russia relations or West relations with Russia have always been fraught, even before the Ukraine war. There was pressure on us not to buy the S-400 with threats of secondary sanctions cuts. We stood our ground. The United States relented. And we could pursue… The same thing is happening with oil,” he explained.

On China, Ashraf noted that New Delhi faces a complex challenge, saying, “With China, we’ve had a complicated relationship. It is our principal geopolitical, economic and security challenge. Our challenges exist at the bilateral, regional, and global levels,” he said.