President Donald Trump criticized trade between the United States and India as a “totally unilateral disaster” on Monday morning, hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in what seemed to be a unified front at a summit in East China.
Key data
Trump, in a publication in Truth Social, said that the United States sells little to India, but India sells “huge amounts of goods, its largest ‘client'”, criticizing what it describes as an unbalanced commercial relationship “for many decades.”
Trump claimed that the “reason is that India has charged us, so far, tariffs so high, more than any other country, that our companies cannot sell to India”, stating that since then the country has offered to reduce tariffs on US products to “nothing.”
Reuters reported that the United States had a commercial deficit of $ 45,800 million with India in 2024, and that the average tariff rate of India on US products is 7.5%, citing the Ministry of Commerce of India, although the office of the United States commercial representative told Reuters that India’s tariff rate on US imports of US cars is 100% and Agricultural products is 39%.
Trump also criticized India for buying oil and Russian military products, weeks after he signed an executive order that increased tariffs to India for importing Russian oil, which, according to him, “undermines the efforts of the United States to counteract the harmful activities of Russia” in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, the 50% tariff rate entered into force that the United States imposed on products from India, something that India described as “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable.”
What happened at the Chinese-Russia-India Summit?
XI, Putin and Modi gathered in Tianjin, China, on Monday, while China received leaders from more than two dozen countries, presenting what looked like a unified front in an action that some analysts called a direct message to the United States, particularly by India, which has been frustrated by tariff negotiations with US Yes, and Putin, who took a walk in limousine in the rear seat with Modi, referred to the Indian leader as his “dear friend.” Modi published a photo of his Limousine walk with Putin in his social media accounts, stating that “conversations with him are always enlightening.” XI, in a speech at the Summit, urged leaders to oppose the “Cold War Mentality, Block Confrontation and Intimidation” in probable attacks on the United States, the New York Times reported. Putin, in a speech, said that the “understandings” achieved with the United States at its Alaska Summit in August could pave the path for peace between Russia and Ukraine, but blamed the West for the war for their “constant attempts to drag Ukraine to NATO.” The summit was Modi’s first trip to China in seven years, and the leaders of the largest countries in Asia agreed that they are development partners, not rival, and that they will not let their disputed border in the Himalayas “define the general relationship between China and India.”
How have the analysts interpreted the Chinese-Russia-India Summit?
Keir Giles, principal researcher at the Chatham House London Center, told NBC News that the summit showed that “the close relationship Trump sought with Putin now shows between Putin and others,” and said that the United States gave India “a real reason to seek friendship and collaboration in other places.” Boj Kewalramani, Director of Indopacific Studies at the Takshashila Institution of Bangalore, India, told the New York Times that the image is a key aspect of the summit and that US policies “will make other countries seek alternatives to satisfy their interests.”
This article was originally published by Forbes Us.
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