India must engage with China, US on equal terms: GTRI

New Delhi | India should engage with China and the US on equal terms and the engagement should be guided by its strategic autonomy, economic interest and global trade principles, not by external pressure, think tank GTRI said on Monday.

These remarks came in the backdrop of China's warning that it would take countermeasures in a "resolute and reciprocal" manner against nations that strike trade deals with America at the expense of Chinese interests.

Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said that China's warning of retaliation against countries aligning with the US efforts to isolate Beijing must be viewed through the lens of global supply chain realities.

Leading economies, including the US, EU, Japan, South Korea, and India, are deeply dependent on China for the supply of industrial and consumer goods, it said, adding that China is embedded at every level of the global production hierarchy - finished goods, intermediate products and parts and components.

Replacing China entirely requires building manufacturing capabilities from the raw material stage upward an effort that no country has yet achieved at scale.

The think tank said that India must chart an independent course, strengthening its domestic manufacturing base and reducing critical import dependencies through targeted investment in deep manufacturing.

At the same time, it said, India should remain firmly committed to WTO-led multilateral trade norms and avoid actions that risk violating global rules.

"India should not be drawn into binary geopolitical rivalries. Instead, it must engage with both China and the US on equal terms, guided by strategic autonomy, economic interest, and global trade principles not by external pressure," GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava said.

The US remained India's largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25 with bilateral trade valued at USD 131.84 billion, while the country's trade deficit with China widened to USD 99.2 billion during the same period, government data showed.

In the last fiscal, India's exports to China contracted 14.5 per cent to USD 14.25 billion against USD 16.66 billion in 2023-24. The imports, however, rose by 11.52 per cent in 2024-25 to USD 113.45 billion against USD 101.73 billion in 2023-24.

China continues to be the second largest trading partner of India with USD 127.7 billion two-way commerce in 2024-25 compared to USD 118.4 billion in 2023-24.

India is negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the US with a view to boosting bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030.