INTERVIEW | 'India should exit the Quad and normalise with China'

In this candid interview with TNIE's Jayanth Jacob, Sachs warns that Donald Trump’s tariff-driven trade wars are unconstitutional, economically damaging, and geopolitically reckless.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs Photo | Express

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs is one of the world’s most respected economists and public intellectuals, renowned for tackling complex global challenges from debt crises and hyperinflation to public health, poverty, and climate change. A former advisor to three UN Secretaries-General, Sachs is University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He is also President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and host of the influential Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs. A bestselling author, Sachs is known for his fearless critiques of US foreign and trade policy.

In this candid interview with Jayanth Jacob, Sachs warns that Donald Trump’s tariff-driven trade wars are unconstitutional, economically damaging, and geopolitically reckless. He urges India to leave the Quad, deepen ties with China, and embrace BRICS.

De-dollarisation is already underway, Sachs says, and within a decade, the dollar’s dominance in global trade and finance will sharply decline, a consequence of the U.S. abusing it as a tool of coercive foreign policy.

How do you assess Donald Trump's increasing use of tariffs as a political and economic weapon? Could his return escalate a full-blown tariff war with both allies and rivals? What would this mean for the world and India?

Trump’s resort to tariffs is illegal under the US Constitution, which gives Congress, not the President the right to set tariffs (under Article I, Section 8). These tariffs may still be struck down by US courts.

Trump’s tariff policy will seriously harm the US economy by making it less competitive and stifling exports. It is already undermining the multilateral system by violating the core principles of the World Trade Organization.

The only indirect “benefit” is that Trump is revealing the US government to be a lawless and disreputable political system, corrupt, illogical, and untrustworthy.

With the U.S. increasingly deploying secondary sanctions, is India becoming more vulnerable, especially if it continues oil and defense ties with Russia or relations with Iran, both of which are key strategic partners?

India’s safety lies in the BRICS and the UN Charter, not in the US. India should diversify its export markets, work with the BRICS on non-dollar payment systems, and exit the Quad, which poses a major disadvantage for India's security. India and China should normalise relations.

Do you see a realistic pathway for India and China to find common economic or geopolitical ground, despite deep border tensions, within forums like BRICS or the SCO, or bilaterally?

India and China together account for nearly 40 per cent of the world’s population, and both have a common interest in ending the West’s delusional belief that it can continue running the world by double standards. The two countries should resolve their long-standing border issues.

China should also strongly support India’s bid to become the sixth permanent member of the UN Security Council. The world including China, will benefit enormously from India gaining that seat.

Trump has often spoken critically of global multilateral groups. Is his fear or antagonism toward a rising BRICS bloc justified in terms of a real threat to U.S. global primacy?

Yes. BRICS is a direct challenge to US primacy, an outdated and failed concept. We no longer live in a world dominated by the West. The US must accept that those days are over. BRICS is crucial for building a multilateral world based on the rule of law and the UN Charter, not the arbitrary power of former empires like Britain and the US.

Is de-dollarisation a credible threat in the medium term, particularly if BRICS nations step up efforts to create a shared currency or settle trade in local currencies?

Yes. De-dollarisation is not just credible, it is already happening. Within 10 years, the dollar will play a much smaller role in international trade, payments, settlements, and finance. The BRICS should accelerate this transition because the US has misused the dollar as a foreign policy weapon. That was a major mistake.

Much has been said about the US–India relationship being the most defining of the 21st century. Do you think this still holds under a Trump administration?

No. The most important relationships of this century will be between China, India, and the African Union. These three giants need to cooperate closely to build a just, sustainable, inclusive, and secure world. The US comprises just 4.1 per cent of the world’s population and around 14 per cent of the global economy. For India, the US is simply one partner among many, not the most important one.

How realistic is the “China+1” or “friend-shoring” strategy in building resilient supply chains centered around India, especially given India's infrastructural and regulatory hurdles?

The US government will never allow India to replace China in its value chains. The US is openly protectionist. If India’s exports to the US rise significantly, Washington will block them, just as it has with Chinese exports. This is already evident with the imposition of 50 per cent tariffs.

In what specific ways might Trump continue undermining the post-WWII liberal international order? Or is that order already crumbling regardless of him?

There is no liberal international order. That’s just a glib slogan masking US domination, backed by 800 overseas military bases, CIA-led regime change operations, unilateral sanctions, the weaponization of the dollar, US complicity in genocide in Gaza, and other profound abuses of power. US power is waning. We are already in a multipolar world, with India, China, Russia, and the US as major powers.

What we need next is a truly multilateral world, operating under the UN Charter and reformed institutions, especially including India as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Could new rounds of trade wars under Trump, especially with China, backfire domestically by inflating costs and triggering political blowback at home?

Yes, but the effects won’t be immediate. The cost of Trump’s trade wars will likely weaken the US economy over 5 to 10 years. The US is also retreating from the global energy transition, for instance, by resisting renewable energy and electric vehicles.

As India balances strategic autonomy with deeper US ties, how might Trump’s “America First” posture complicate or enhance this balance? Do you think the much-talked-about personal chemistry between PM Modi and President Trump will be of great use?

Personal chemistry doesn’t matter. There’s no real benefit for India in aligning with the US Soft alliances like the Quad are harmful to India’s foreign policy interests.

India should build strong ties with all major powers, including Russia, the US, China, the African Union, and the European Union, without taking sides in the US’s futile and dangerous attempt to contain China. Washington is clinging to illusions of hegemony. That is not in India’s interest, and India should not indulge this American delusion.