India can’t avoid global responsibility: US Congressman – IANS LIVE

Washington, May 19 (IANS) US Congressman Ro Khanna said India must increasingly act like a global power and take on greater international responsibilities as it rises economically and strategically on the world stage.
Speaking at the Capitol Hill Summit 2026 organised by the US-India Friendship Council, Khanna said India’s growing influence carried obligations beyond regional politics and economic growth.
“India has to decide who it wants to be as it enters this place of world leadership,” Khanna said during a panel discussion on defence, technology and energy cooperation. “You can’t say you want to be a world leader, but then shrink away from responsibility.”
Khanna specifically pointed to the Ukraine conflict, arguing that India could play a constructive diplomatic role because of its longstanding ties with Russia.
“I’ve been very vocal in India as well as here that India can play a very constructive role in helping bring the war in Ukraine to an end,” he said. “It has lines of communications with Russia.”
Noting that India historically sought to maintain a non-aligned position in global affairs, Khanna suggested the geopolitical realities of the 21st century required New Delhi to take clearer positions on international crises.
“India has its own aspirations,” Khanna said. “Fastest growing economy in the world. It has to decide who it wants to be.”
Despite recent tensions over tariffs and trade policies under President Donald Trump’s administration, Khanna said the broader strategic logic of the US-India relationship remained unchanged.
“Nothing fundamentally has changed about our long-term strategic interest,” he said.
Khanna argued that both Democrats and Republicans in Congress continued to strongly support closer engagement with India, particularly on defence, technology and Indo-Pacific security cooperation.
At the same time, he criticised what he described as anti-Indian voices within sections of the Trump administration.
“I do think there’s folks like Peter Navarro and others inside the administration that are very anti-Indian,” Khanna said.
Earlier in the summit, Khanna delivered a broader philosophical defence of a values-based US-India partnership, warning against nationalism and authoritarianism.
“It is what are the values that will undergird the US-India relationship,” he said. “Are we going to form an alliance of convenience based on nationalism?”
Khanna called for the two democracies to work together in promoting pluralism, democratic governance and international cooperation.
“We must, as the United States, build a multiracial democracy and work with India as a multiracial democracy,” he said.
The congressman also reflected on his own political journey as an Indian American, recalling that he was once told an Indian American of Hindu faith would struggle to win elected office in the United States.
“One of the very few people who would say, ‘You keep at it, you keep working, this country will make space for you,’ was Swadesh,” Khanna said, referring to US-India Friendship Council chairman Swadesh Chatterjee.
Khanna represents California’s Silicon Valley-based 17th Congressional District and has emerged as one of the most prominent Indian American voices in Congress on technology, democracy and foreign policy issues.
–IANS
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