India, US should not do anything that undermines each other's complementarity: Ashley J Tellis

Tellis told ANI on the sidelines of the Carnegie Global Technology Summit in New Delhi that he is not a "great fan" of tariffs.

India and the US are negotiating a bilateral trade agreement, expected to be inked by the fall of 2025.

"I hope we can have accelerated negotiations with our key partners so that we can put this issue to bed because the long-term advantage we have is the complementarity of our two economies, and we should not be doing anything that undermines that complementarity," Tellis said.

"And so I think we need to look beyond these tariff wars to the kind of economic partnership that can be built between the United States and India, and I'm very bullish about that prospect over the long term," he supplemented.

Pointing to the latest slump in US financial markets, Tellis asserted that "it has become very clear from the developments of the last few days that the US economy has suffered a lot of pain."

"When you have a tanking of the equity markets, when you have a severe disturbance in the bond markets, when you have pressure on the US dollar, I mean this is a trifecta that is not welcomed by average Americans, and so there is absolutely no doubt that this has been a painful experience (for the US)," he said.

Further, asked about 2008 Mumbai attack accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana, Tellis said thex extradition is welcoming.

"I think it is welcome. I think it is long overdue. I wish we had found the legal and political tools to do it earlier, but I'm very happy that we have done it because, you know, he enjoyed immunities in the United States that he did not deserve," he said.

"And so, of course, the legal system worked its way through, but at the end of the day, the courts did not accept his appeal. And he is now in Indian hands, and justice will be served," Tellis added.

Tahawwur Rana, who is among the main accused of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, was extradited to India from the US on Thursday. The United States Department of Justice has termed the extradition of convicted terrorist Tahawwur Hussain Rana as "a critical step" toward seeking justice for the victims of the 26/11 heinous Mumbai terror attacks.