New Delhi, Sept 5: India on Friday declined to respond to US President Donald Trump’s remarks that New Delhi is inching closer to China even as it rejected as “inaccurate and misleading” White House Trade advisor Peter Navarro’s attack on it for procurement of Russian crude oil.
“Looks like we have lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!,” the US president said on social media.
Trump’s latest remarks came days after after the bonhomie among Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Chinese city of Tianjin drew global attention.
At a media briefing, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal did not respond to questions on Trump’s post.
“I have no comments to offer on this post at this time,” he said responding to a question.
Jaiswal, however, firmly rejected Navarro’s offensive remarks on India in the last few days.
“We have seen the inaccurate and misleading statements made by Navarro, and obviously reject them,” Jaiswal said.
Last week, Navarro accused India of being an “oil money laundromat for the Kremlin” and described it as “strategic freeloading” New Delhi continuing to buy Russian weapons while urging American defence firms to transfer sensitive military technologies and set up manufacturing plants in India.
Jaiswal said India and the US are engaged on issues relating to trade, “The relationship between the United States and India is very important for us. Both our countries share a comprehensive global strategic partnership, which is anchored in our shared interests, democratic values and robust people-to-people ties,” he said.
The external affairs ministry spokesperson also repeated his previous remarks that the partnership has weathered several “transitions and challenges”.
“We remain focused on the substantive agenda that our two countries have committed to, and we hope that the relationship will continue to move forward based on mutual respect and shared interests,” he said.
Jaiswal also referred to a joint military exercise that is underway between Indian and American troops in Alaska.
Asked about reports of uncertainty over the annual Quad summit that India has to host over its frosty ties with the US, Jaiswal said he would not like to comment on speculations on the issue.
“The Quad is a valuable forum for discussion on shared interests in a number of areas. The leaders’ summit is scheduled through diplomatic consultations among the four partners,” he said.
The relations between New Delhi and Washington are on a downturn after Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50 per cent including a 25 per cent additional duties for India’s purchase of Russian crude oil.
The 25 per cent tariff has already come into effect and additional levies are due from August 27.
India described the US action as “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable” and even wondered why it has been singled out for the punitive action. Surprisingly, the US has not imposed any punitive measure on China, the largest importer of Russian crude oil.
Defending its purchase of Russian crude oil, India has been maintaining that its energy procurement is driven by national interest and market dynamics.
India turned to purchasing Russian oil sold at a discount after Western countries imposed sanctions on Moscow and shunned its supplies over its invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022.
Consequently, from a mere 1.7 per cent share in total oil imports in 2019-20, Russia’s share increased to 35.1 per cent in 2024-25, and it is now the biggest oil supplier to India. (PTI)
