GOP Congressman Rich McCormick calls for stronger India-US partnership, urges Trump to keep ‘friend’ India ‘close’ for…

Republican Congressman and India Caucus co-chairman Rich McCormick called for a stronger India-US partnership and said the two countries together could usher in “another generation” of global peace. Speaking at an event at the Hudson Institute on Monday, McCormick said the Trump administration should keep friends like India “close” to the US.

“When you talk about India and I am the chairman of the India group, I love India. I think India and the US… we are very well matched to the future of the largest democracy, the richest and oldest democracy, if we come together, it can bring us together for another generation of peace where you can get prosperity and wealth development that the world has never seen,” he added.

He also advised the Trump administration on its tariff policy towards India, emphasizing that they should be “careful”. “On average, India was charging 15 percent tariff with barrier, while we were about 2 percent tariff without barrier. This is something President Trump has done very well, but we need to be careful,” he said.

McCormick also praised India’s space program and its achievement of becoming the first country in the world to successfully land a spacecraft on the dark side of the moon in 2023. “A country that does things very well would put a spaceship on the dark side of the moon for 74 million dollars. I always joke that with this money we cannot even develop a building that would even talk about putting a spaceship on the dark side of the moon. If we keep our friends close, we can do things much better,” he emphasized.

After a long period of silence, many Republican lawmakers are now openly defending India-US ties.

At least six bipartisan letters and resolutions have been drafted in the last three weeks defending the interests of the Indo-American community, affirming support for the India-US partnership, and pressing the administration for accountability for its recent actions targeting New Delhi.

In October, a bipartisan group of six Representatives wrote a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick expressing concerns about the H-1B proclamation. “We are concerned that the recent announcement regarding H-1B visa petitions will create significant challenges for U.S. employers and weaken our overall competitiveness,” the letter said. The group included Democrat Suhas Subramanyam as well as Republican Congressmen Jay Obernolte and Don Bacon.

On October 17, four US lawmakers wrote a letter to President Donald Trump, urging him to attend the Quad Leaders Summit in India and other meetings in Asia. That same day, a bipartisan resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives recognizing “the contributions of the Native American diaspora to the United States” and condemning recent racist acts against Indian Americans. The resolution also stated that the India-US relationship is “one of the most important democratic partnerships in the world.”

Leaders of both the Democratic and Republican parties have faced criticism for remaining mostly silent as top Trump administration officials such as Trade Advisor Peter Navarro and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have repeatedly targeted India over its purchase of oil from Russia and trade imbalance. In August, the Trump administration imposed a 50 percent tariff on New Delhi, which included a 25 percent tax on imports of Russian oil.

Relations have stabilized in recent weeks and negotiators have resumed talks to finalize the first phase of a trade deal.