{"id":321863,"date":"2025-08-06T06:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T06:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/321863\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T06:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T06:55:10","slug":"us-india-relations-hit-new-low-despite-trump-modi-bromance-whats-next-donald-trump-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/321863\/","title":{"rendered":"US-India relations hit new low despite Trump-Modi bromance: What\u2019s next? | Donald Trump News"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Delhi, India \u2014<\/strong> When Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, many Indian analysts celebrated, arguing that his bonhomie with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would shield the country from the chaos that the United States president could unleash.<\/p>\n

The two leaders had effectively campaigned for each other previously, attending joint rallies. They have repeatedly described each other as friends, and in February, Modi became among the first world leaders to visit Trump in the White House.<\/p>\n

But six months later, a sobering reality has hit New Delhi, with Trump punishing it with a 25 percent tariff on imports and near-daily threats to increase those levies further because of India\u2019s oil purchases from Russia, as he tries to force Moscow into accepting a ceasefire in its war on Ukraine.<\/p>\n

An India-US trade deal remains elusive, and bilateral relations are on a slippery slope, according to some experts. \u201cUS-India relations are at the lowest point in decades,\u201d Biswajit Dhar, a trade economist who has worked on several Indian trade deals, told Al Jazeera. Dozens of other countries, including neighbours India has tense ties with, such as Pakistan and Bangladesh, are facing lower tariffs.<\/p>\n

Addressing a public rally on Saturday, Modi took a defiant stance against Trump\u2019s tariff assaults. \u201cThe world economy is going through many apprehensions. There is an atmosphere of instability,\u201d Modi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, whatever we buy, there should be only one scale: we will buy those things which have been made by the sweat of an Indian,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Modi\u2019s comments come as Indian officials reportedly reject stopping the buying of Russian crude.<\/p>\n

Trump has blamed India\u2019s buying of Russian oil for helping finance Moscow\u2019s war on Ukraine. \u201cThey [Indians] don\u2019t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine,\u201d\u00a0 Trump said Monday. \u201cBecause of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, how did we get here? What are the growing points of discord between India and the US? And could India give up on Russian oil to save its relationship with the US?<\/p>\n

What are the friction points in US-India relations?<\/p>\n

Modi and Trump might speak highly of each other, but there is a growing number of areas where India and the US are at odds, ranging from trade agreements to strategic alignment.<\/p>\n

No trade deal<\/p>\n

Trade has long been a sticking point in US-India relations, even as strategic and defence ties have deepened. The US has consistently pushed for greater market access, lower tariffs and stronger protections, especially for its tech, pharmaceutical and agricultural exports. India, on the other hand, has resisted what it sees as disproportionate pressure to open up its economy in ways that may harm its domestic industries and small farmers.<\/p>\n

Yet, before Trump, the two countries managed this economic relationship, despite its imbalance: India sold twice as much to the US as the US sold to India. The US wanted access to India\u2019s growing markets, and India needed to export to the US, so keeping ties afloat was important to both.<\/p>\n

After Trump first announced tariffs on almost all trading partners on April 1, Indian and US officials began talks to stitch together a trade deal. But disagreements over e-commerce regulation, digital data flows and price controls on medical devices have reportedly stalled progress.<\/p>\n

Indian officials were frantically chasing the August 1 deadline set by Trump to avoid tariffs. But despite occasional breakthroughs, like India cutting tariffs on some US goods, the two countries have not yet concluded a full bilateral trade deal.<\/p>\n

With negotiations still under way, New Delhi now faces 25 percent tariffs on its exports to the US, and Trump has threatened unspecified additional penalties tied to India\u2019s energy and arms purchases from Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a pressure tactic by Trump,\u201d said Anil Trigunayat, a former Indian diplomat who has served as India\u2019s trade commissioner in New York. \u201cUnlike others, India has not given in to what the Americans want because we have to protect our MSMEs and agriculture,\u201d he added, using the acronym for micro, small, and medium enterprises.<\/p>\n

Almost half of India\u2019s population depends on agriculture for its livelihood, making the issue politically sensitive for every Indian government.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is playing hardball on both sides, and it\u2019s necessary to arrive at a mutually beneficial solution,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\"DonaldUS President Donald Trump and Indian\u00a0 Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, on February 13, 2025, in Washington, DC [Alex Brandon\/AP]India\u2019s close ties with Russia<\/p>\n

As Trump\u2019s frustrations with Russia mount over stalled peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, the US president has been looking for more ways to corner Moscow. India\u2019s longstanding relationship with Russia has emerged as a key target for Washington.<\/p>\n

While the US views India as a key partner in countering China\u2019s rise in the Asia Pacific, it has grown increasingly uneasy with New Delhi\u2019s continued defence and energy ties with Moscow, analysts say.<\/p>\n

At a time when the West has shunned Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court related to the war in Ukraine, Modi visited Russia twice last year. In July 2024, Putin conferred upon Modi the Order of St Andrew the Apostle the First\u2011Called, Russia\u2019s highest civilian honour.<\/p>\n

Russia remains one of India\u2019s largest arms suppliers, and their cooperation spans critical technologies, including missile systems and nuclear reactors. And after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, India ramped up imports of discounted Russian crude oil.<\/p>\n

Kashmir ceasefire<\/p>\n

After an attack by gunmen in Indian-administered Kashmir\u2019s Pahalgam resort town on April 22, in which 26 civilians were killed, India and Pakistan engaged in their most expansive military conflict in decades.<\/p>\n

As the South Asian nuclear-armed rivals traded missile and drone attacks in May, Trump said he intervened and told both countries to agree to a ceasefire, or there would be no trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cFellas, come on. Let\u2019s make a deal. Let\u2019s do some trading. Let\u2019s not trade nuclear missiles. Let\u2019s trade the things that you make so beautifully,\u201d Trump said a few days later in Riyadh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used trade to a large extent to do [the ceasefire]. And it all stopped,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In India, which has long held the position that all disputes with Pakistan must be settled bilaterally, with no third-party mediation, Trump\u2019s claim that he engineered the May 10 ceasefire that stopped the fighting has sparked criticism of Modi from the opposition.<\/p>\n

Modi\u2019s government has insisted that the truce was brought about bilaterally, that Modi did not speak to Trump during the conflict, and that \u2013 contrary to the US president\u2019s claims \u2013 trade was never discussed as a factor in negotiating the ceasefire. But Trump has doubled down on his claim, mentioning more than 30 times that he brokered peace.<\/p>\n

Growing US-Pakistan ties<\/p>\n

After the ceasefire between India and Pakistan in May, Trump hosted Pakistan\u2019s army chief, Asim Munir, at the White House. Never before had a US president hosted a Pakistani military boss who was not also the head of state.<\/p>\n

That meeting underscored a growing warmth between Washington and Islamabad after years of tense ties, with US military officials crediting Pakistan with helping them capture wanted \u201cterrorists\u201d.<\/p>\n

The government of Pakistan also officially endorsed Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for \u201crecognition of his decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership during the recent India-Pakistan crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n

A day after meeting Munir, Trump called Modi a \u201cfantastic man\u201d, but added that Munir was \u201cextremely influential\u201d in bringing about the ceasefire.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Pakistan,\u201d Trump said, and repeated: \u201cI stopped the war between Pakistan and India.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Trump targeted India in his latest tariff assault, he took to his Truth Social platform to reveal that he had concluded a deal with Pakistan, in which they would work together on developing oil reserves. \u201cWho knows, maybe they\u2019ll be selling Oil to India some day!\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Later, the US imposed a 19 percent tariff on imports from Pakistan, which Islamabad hailed as \u201cbalanced and forward-looking\u201d.<\/p>\n

Big Tech hiring, deportation<\/p>\n

Days before Modi visited Trump in February, visuals emerged of Indian citizens in the US, shackled in chains, parading towards a US military aircraft, prompting anger in India over the treatment of its nationals.<\/p>\n

Returnees, immigrants without documents to stay in the US, described being chained throughout the flight to India, unable to move for nearly 40 hours. Like trade, the issue of deportation has been at the centre of Trump\u2019s re-election campaign.<\/p>\n

And it is not just undocumented migrants.<\/p>\n

After assuming the presidency, Trump\u2019s administration has also come under pressure from the president\u2019s Make America Great Again (MAGA) base to crack down on H1B work visas, nearly 72 percent of which go to Indians.<\/p>\n

Last month, speaking at an artificial intelligence summit in Washington, DC, Trump singled out tech giants like Google, Microsoft and Apple for hiring workers from India. Trump declared, \u201cThe days of hiring workers in India are over\u201d, and urged companies to prioritise jobs for Americans and disconnect from outsourcing models tied to India and China.<\/p>\n

\"TheRussian President Vladimir Putin awards Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Order of St Andrew the Apostle the First-Called, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on July 9, 2024 [Evgenia Novozhenina\/Reuters]What\u2019s the latest spark in US-India tensions?<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine has emerged as the latest trigger, as Trump tried to push Putin into accepting a ceasefire.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that \u201cIndia is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits\u201d.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff at the White House and one of the US president\u2019s most influential aides, linked India\u2019s buying of Russian crude to financing Moscow\u2019s war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat [Trump] said very clearly is that it is not acceptable for India to continue financing this war by purchasing the oil from Russia,\u201d said Miller.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will be shocked to learn that India is basically tied with China in purchasing Russian oil. That\u2019s an astonishing fact,\u201d Miller told Fox News\u2019s Sunday Morning Futures.<\/p>\n

India imports nearly 2 million barrels of crude oil per day from Russia, making it the second-largest purchaser of Russian oil after China. Russia also tops the list of India\u2019s arms suppliers.<\/p>\n

How has India reacted to Trump?<\/p>\n

On Monday, India\u2019s Ministry of External Affairs responded sharply, calling the US\u2019s targeting of New Delhi over the buying of Russian oil \u201cunjustified and unreasonable\u201d.<\/p>\n

It accused the West of double standards, pointing out how Europe traded more with Russia in 2024 than India did, and how the US continues to import chemicals and fertilisers from Russia.<\/p>\n

It also said that the US has \u201cactively encouraged\u201d it to buy Russian oil, so that global crude prices would stay under control while the West could reduce its dependence on Russian energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndia will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security,\u201d the statement concluded.<\/p>\n

Will India stop buying Russian oil to please Trump?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That is very unlikely, experts say.<\/p>\n

India has historically \u2014 since independence from Britain in 1947 \u2014 cherished its strategic autonomy, including during the Cold War, when it stayed non-aligned. Since the end of the Cold War, it has deepened strategic and military ties with the US while maintaining its traditional friendship with Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is trying to wean India off its strategic autonomy policy by going after its ties with Russia and membership in BRICS,\u201d Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera, referring to the Trump\u2019s threats of higher tariffs against members of the bloc that includes several leading nations of the Global South.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Delhi is not about to jettison this policy in the face of Trump\u2019s pressure. On the contrary, I expect it to double down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late on Tuesday, India\u2019s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval landed in Moscow. Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar is expected to visit Russia later this month. And New Delhi has confirmed that Putin will be visiting India later this year, for the first time since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, India has also indicated that it is open to reviving a trilateral grouping including Russia and China, the West\u2019s two big rivals.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan the US or Europe give up their strategic autonomy?\u201d asked Jayati Ghosh, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. \u201cIndia has more people than both of them put together. It is absurd to even think that India can give up that,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\"JAPAN-G20-SUMMIT\"Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping hold a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka on June 28, 2019 [Mikhail Klimentyev\/Sputnik\/ AFP]What does this mean for future of US-India relationship?<\/p>\n

Echoing Dhar, the economist, Kugelman said that US-India relations have \u201csunk to their lowest level during the last two decades of strategic partnership\u201d, which began taking shape in the early years of the 21st century.<\/p>\n

Non-alignment with foreign governments \u201cremains a critical component of India\u2019s foreign policy\u201d, said Kugelman, adding that he expects that to continue.<\/p>\n

And because \u201cIndia maintained this balance after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, Trump is penalising [New Delhi] for trying to maintain the balance [between US and Russia],\u201d he said. \u201c[That\u2019s] something that the Biden administration never did,\u201d he added, referring to the previous administration of US President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

Trigunayat, the former diplomat, said that \u201cstrategic autonomy for India is more important now than ever. India, with the world\u2019s largest population, has its own approach to strategic autonomy that\u2019s in the DNA of Indian foreign policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the longer run, Kugelman said that New Delhi will hope that Trump\u2019s ire will eventually blow over \u2013 a likely case if Russia agrees to stop fighting in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that sense, India may look to redouble efforts to press Putin to end the war,\u201d said Kugelman, \u201cbecause for now, Trump appears to be taking out his frustration with Putin on India\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Delhi, India \u2014 When Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, many Indian analysts celebrated,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[521,32,13641,730,22817,12,285,332,49,978,286,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-321863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-asia","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-explainer","11":"tag-india","12":"tag-narendra-modi","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-russia","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-us-canada","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114980515163688251","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}