Foreign Policy of America.
Does anybody know the foreign policy of America? Can anyone tell who are the friends of America other than Israel? We do know that Russia and Iran are its enemies. But who are its allies? Europe? India? Canada?
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Peter Lutnick is in New Delhi. Lutnick’s professional experience is defined by his decades-long leadership of Cantor Fitzgerald, a major financial services firm. In short, he is a bond dealer. He gets paid for every bond he sells.
He is a longtime friend of President Donald Trump. Lutnick co-chaired Trump’s 2024 presidential transition team. As Commerce Secretary, Lutnick has emerged as a leading voice for economic nationalism and protectionist trade policies. But what is relevant is his frequent rhetoric to the media. He has his own version as to why no trade deal took place between USA and India.
When asked why no deal was taking place between India and USA, he said the trade deal did not happen because PM Modi did not call.
As per reports he said: “I’ll tell you a story about India. I did the first deal with the UK, and we told the UK that they had to get it done by two Fridays from now. That the train was going to leave the station by two Fridays, because I have a lot of other countries doing things, and you know, if someone else is first, they’re first. President Trump does deals like a staircase … first stair gets the best deal. You can’t get the best deal after the first guy…”
Lutnick said on Bloomberg in September 2025: “I think yes, in a month or two months, I think India is going to be at the table, and they’re going to say they’re sorry, and they’re going to try to make a deal with Donald Trump.”
Then in January 2026, on the All-In Podcast, he said: “You have to have Modi call the President. They were uncomfortable doing it. So, Modi didn’t call.”
India’s Ministry of External Affairs denied the statement. They stated that Modi and Trump spoke eight times last year and a deal was close. There is no response from Prime Minister of India or any Minister from India about the call. I had predicted on January 27, 2026 that there will be no call. Read about it here.
Yet on 26 February 2026, Lutnick is in New Delhi having lunch with Piyush Goyal and US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor. No formal announcements were made beforehand. The public learned of his arrival only through social media posts by Minister Piyush Goyal and the US Ambassador after the meetings had taken place. Lutnick is on a personal visit to India, an Indian trade ministry official said.
So who apologized to whom?
The answer lies in what happened just days before. The US Supreme Court struck down Trump’s sweeping global tariffs. That single ruling changed everything. India, which had been under pressure to accept US trade terms, now had room to breathe. New Delhi postponed a scheduled trade delegation visit to Washington. It signaled it would wait for clarity before signing anything.
The dynamics shifted. The court ruling altered the balance of leverage. Lutnick, who had publicly predicted India would concede and apologize, quietly flew to New Delhi instead. There was no press conference. No formal agenda. Just a lunch, a photo posted on social media, and words like “highly productive” and “fruitful discussions.”
India had already postponed talks with Washington aimed at finalizing a trade framework. Trump warned countries against “playing games.” Yet it was the US Commerce Secretary who boarded a plane to India, unannounced.
The irony is hard to miss. The man who said India would come to the table and apologize was now sitting at India’s table. No apology was made publicly by either side. But diplomacy has its own language. A quiet visit, an unscheduled lunch, a smiling photo etc. speak louder than words.
The Dalal
A stock broker deals in equity. He helps people own a piece of a company. There is at least a pretense of building something.
A bond broker is different. He deals in debt. He moves paper that represents money owed. He earns a commission every time debt changes hands. The more debt circulates, the more he earns.
The word dalal captures it well. In Hindi, a dalal is a middleman who profits from the transaction itself. He has no stake in the outcome. He does not care if the deal is good or bad for either side. He only cares that the deal happens.
Now apply that lens to Lutnick’s role as Commerce Secretary. He is negotiating trade deals on behalf of America. But his instinct is that of a dalal. Push urgency. Create a deadline. Make the other side feel they will miss the train. Close the deal fast.
That is bond broker thinking. It is not statecraft.
A statesman thinks in decades. A bond broker thinks in settlement cycles. When Lutnick said India would “say sorry and come to the table,” he was not doing diplomacy. He was doing a sales pitch.
And when the tariff ruling came and the leverage shifted, he did what any good dalal does. He quietly went where the deal was. No ego. No ideology. Just commission.
America’s foreign policy, it turns out, is not purely about ideology or alliances. It follows leverage. And when leverage shifts, so does the direction of the plane.
Social Implications
Dalal on the street does not mean simply middleman. It carries a much darker shade. It implies someone who facilitates transactions that neither party wants to openly admit to. Someone who lives in the shadows of a deal. The word has the same moral weight as pimp in English.
That is why respectable middlemen in India go to great lengths to avoid the word. A property dealer sounds professional. An estate agent sounds almost British. A commission agent sounds like he has an office and a visiting card.
The function is often identical. The estate agent also takes his cut. The commission agent also does not care about your long term interest. He cares about closing. But the word he uses for himself determines how society treats him.
Lutnick calls himself Commerce Secretary. America calls itself the leader of the free world. The packaging is everything.
The function underneath may be the same as a dalal. But nobody will say it out loud in polite company. That is the real distinction between power and the street. Power gets to choose its own title. The man on the street does not.
Size of Commission
America has often presented itself as a nation driven by values. Democracy. Freedom. Human rights. These are the words it uses publicly. But look at the record.
It supported Saddam Hussein when Iraq was fighting Iran. Then it destroyed Saddam when he stopped being useful. It propped up the Shah of Iran. Then watched him fall. It armed the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Then spent twenty years fighting the same people it armed.
No ego. No ideology. Just profit.
The alliances shift based on oil, trade routes, military bases, and bond markets. Israel is supported not just out of sentiment but because it is a strategic base in a volatile region. Saudi Arabia is a friend despite everything because oil pricing and petrodollar arrangements matter more than values.
Europe is an ally as long as it buys American weapons and hosts American bases. The moment Europe talks about strategic autonomy, Washington gets uncomfortable.
India is interesting right now because America needs a counterweight to China. That is the only reason India matters to Washington at this moment. Not democracy. Not shared values. Geometry and economics.
What applies to Lutnick, the dalal, applies to America the state. The ideology is the packaging. The product inside is always profit.
The difference between a great power and a dalal is mostly the size of the commission.
References:
- What happened to trade deal: https://sandeepbhalla.in/what-happened-to-india-usa-trade-deal/
- Modi did not call: https://aninews.in/news/business/us-commerce-secy-lutnick-claims-trade-deal-with-india-didnt-happen-as-pm-modi-did-not-call-trump20260109111516/
- Modi did not call: https://www.deccanchronicle.com/world/india-us-trade-deal-didnt-happen-because-modi-did-not-call-trump-lutnick-1929319
- Interview on the ‘All-In Podcast’ (January 2026): https://aninews.in/news/business/us-commerce-secy-lutnick-claims-trade-deal-with-india-didnt-happen-as-pm-modi-did-not-call-trump20260109111516/
- Modi did not call President Trump: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/india-trade-deal-delayed-after-modi-did-not-call-trump-lutnick-says/3794994
- Trump’s Staircase Policy: https://www.deccanchronicle.com/world/india-us-trade-deal-didnt-happen-because-modi-did-not-call-trump-lutnick-1929319
- Official statement from India’s Ministry of External Affairs: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/india-trade-deal-delayed-after-modi-did-not-call-trump-lutnick-says/3794994
- MEA rejected Lutnick’s account: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/india-trade-deal-delayed-after-modi-did-not-call-trump-lutnick-says/3794994
- Feb 2026 visit: https://theprint.in/world/piyush-goyal-us-commerce-secretary-lutnick-discuss-trade-ties-after-trumps-tariffs-are-struck-down/2864757/
- Supreme Court strikes down Trump tariffs: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-26/lutnick-india-s-goyal-meet-amid-us-court-tariff-setback
- Lutnick’s quiet visit to India: https://www.foxbusiness.com/fox-news-world/commerce-secretary-howard-lutnick-makes-quiet-trip-india-days-after-tariff-setback
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