Ukraine conflict is ‘Modi’s war’: Trump officials continue tirade against India

WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): A day after the United States imposed 25% secondary sanctions on Indian goods as a penalty for India’s purchases of Russian oil, in addition to the earlier 25% reciprocal tariffs, the Trump administration kept up its tirade, terming the conflict in Ukraine as “Modi’s war”.

The U.S. Opposition Democratic party, however, criticized the move, saying that “singling out India” would hurt the U.S. as well. Former U.S. officials, including former Ambassador Kenneth Juster, expressed hope that the situation would be resolved at the highest levels, potentially through a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The penalty tariffs by the U.S. are the first such broad-based sanctions placed on India since at least 1998, when the U.S. stopped bilateral cooperation over India’s testing of nuclear devices. In 2019, Mr. Trump had also withdrawn India’s status under the Generalized System of Preferences for exporters.

‘U.S. taxpayers fund Modi’s war’

“India can get 25% off the tariffs right now if they agree to stop buying [Russian] oil and feeding the war machine,” said Mr. Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro, who has been leading the charge on tariffs. Mr. Navarro accused Indian negotiators of falsely claiming that India does not charge high tariffs, and of “arrogance” in refusing to cut oil imports from Russia, while “profiteering” from refining Russian oil in partnership with Russian refiners, a reference to the Vadinar refinery in Gujarat.

“Everybody in America loses because of what India is doing. Consumers and businesses lose; workers lose because India’s high tariffs cost us jobs, income and higher raises. The taxpayers lose because we’ve got to fund Modi’s war.” Mr. Navarro told the Bloomberg news agency, accusing India of “getting in bed with the authoritarians” like Russia and China.

‘Profiteering on Russian crude’

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called India-U.S. ties a “complicated relationship”, despite good ties between Mr. Trump and Mr. Modi, and said that the issue was not just Russian oil purchases but India’s failure to make a deal with the U.S. on trade.

“I thought India could be one of the earlier deals and they kind of tapped us along in terms of the negotiations. Then there is also the aspect of the Russian crude purchases which they’ve been profiteering on,” Mr. Bessent told Fox News on Wednesday, where he said the Indian rupee is at “an all-time low” due to recent developments.

Democratic lawmakers, however, attacked the Trump government, pointing out that China buys more Russian oil than India. In the past month, China has increased its intake of Russian oil even as India decreased its purchases.

“Instead of imposing sanctions on China or others purchasing larger amounts of Russian oil, Trump’s singling out India with tariffs, hurting Americans and sabotaging the U.S.-India relationship in the process. It’s almost like it’s not about Ukraine at all,” the Democrats in the House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a post on X.

‘Cooler heads needed’

Meanwhile, a number of former U.S. officials who have dealt with India in the past expressed their disappointment with the situation leading to the U.S. slapping 50% tariffs on Indian goods from August 27.

“Unfortunately, the United States and India have managed to convert what appeared to be a true and unprecedented win-win on trade into a remarkable lose-lose,” said Mark Linscott, former U.S. trade negotiator, who is now an advisor for The Asia Group and the U.S. India Strategic Partnership Forum, calling for “cooler heads who understand the value of the relationship” to prevail.

‘Stay open to talks’

Mr. Juster, also a former U.S. Commerce official who served as Ambassador to India during the first Trump term, told the Council for Foreign Relations that Mr. Trump believes the U.S.-India economic relationship has been “out of balance” for many years.

“Given the vibrant political discourse in India, [Mr.] Modi needed to respond publicly and firmly to the new tariffs. But he should also be careful not to paint himself into a corner and to remain open to discussing ways to resolve the current trade dispute,” he said, expressing the hope that the two leaders would meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in September.

Indian government officials, however, said that there were no plans for Mr. Modi to visit the U.S. for the UNGA at present.

(Agencies)