Amid rising tensions in India–US relations, United States Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said during an interaction with Bloomberg TV on Friday that India would soon seek reconciliation with Washington.

Lutnick predicted that within the next one or two months, India would apologise to US President Donald Trump and come to the negotiating table for a trade deal. He added, “It will be on Donald Trump’s desk & how he wants to deal with Prime Minister Modi. We leave that to him, that is why he is the President.”

The remarks came shortly after a controversial statement by Trump on social media platform Truth Social, where he suggested India and Russia had aligned with China. “Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together,” Trump wrote, sharing a picture of the three leaders at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

Responding to queries at the weekly press briefing, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal declined to comment directly on Trump’s post.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government was preparing a relief package for exporters to mitigate the impact of high tariffs imposed by the US. She emphasised that the Centre would not leave exporters vulnerable and that measures were being finalised to help them withstand the tariff shock while exploring new markets.