US-India row over Russian oil, trade risks wider fallout

#USIndia #row #Russian #oil #trade #risks #wider #fallout

Officials and analysts have warned that US President Donald Trump’s trade imbalance and the continued purchase of Russian oil threats attack on two decades of diplomatic progress, when the growing domestic pressure attracts both countries to a strong stand.

Faced domestic criticism, parts of the Indian opposition parties and parts of the public have demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fight to describe Trump as a strategy for the blast. On Wednesday, the US president signed an executive order with Moscow retaliating with India’s oil affairs, slapping 25 % of Indian imports on Indian imports.

Although India has emerged as a key partner in Washington in its strategic enmity with China in recent years, its major US trade surplus and close ties with Russia – which Trump is trying to pressure the peace agreement with Ukraine – is trying to make the president of Republican a key.

Two sources in the Indian government said that Trump’s sarcasm is that India can buy oil from the enemy of Pakistan, and in New Delhi, he has not gone down well. India has also rejected Trump’s repeated claims that it has used trade as a lever to end the recent military conflict between Pakistan and India.

In an extraordinary sharp statement this week, India has been accused of double quality for Russian oil imports, while Russian uranium is continuing to buy hexhalovouride, palms and fertilizers. On Wednesday, he called the rates “unfair, unpredictable and irrational,” vowed that “all the steps needed to protect his national interests”.

Sources said that New Delhi knows that any further increase in trade matters will hurt it. He said that unlike China, India does not have the benefit of providing rare lands so that Trump’s hand can be forced to improve the terms of any trade agreement.

In recent years, as an important partner in long -term efforts to counter China’s growing power, Trump’s first, carefully cultivated relations with India, including the US administration.

But analysts say Trump’s recent actions have potentially returned the relationship to its worst phase as the United States imposed sanctions on India for nuclear tests in 1998.

“India is now in a trap: Due to Trump’s pressure, Modi will reduce India’s oil purchase from Russia, but he said,” They are not publicly confessing to Trump’s blackmail in front of Trump’s blackmail for international peace. ” “

“We can lead to an unnecessary crisis that eliminates the benefits of winning a quarter century with India.”

According to Reuters, Indian state refiners have stopped buying Russian oil in recent days as exemptions are tight and Trump is under pressure.

Relationships new new challenges

Analysts say India is another important challenge, offering its priorities and important issues between Trump’s political grounds such as work visas and services for professionals.

India has long been a major advantage of US work visa programs and outsourcing of software and business services, which is a traumatic point for Americans who have lost their cheap workers in India.

Former Senior State Department official, Ivan Fagenbam, warned that relations with India were in danger of becoming a “football in US domestic politics” under George W. Bush’s Republican presidency.

He wrote in the LinkedIn post, “The issues that are directly touching India are among the most discriminatory and explosives in Washington, including immigration and deportation, H1B visas for tech workers, offshore and abroad, and refreshing with foreign companies.”

Since the 2008 agreement to cooperate in civilian nuclear technology, the two countries have deepened intelligence sharing and defense cooperation and has increased interaction through quad -grouping with Australia and Japan, which aims to dominate China’s dominance in the Indian Ocean.

But the fractures have appeared, yet Modi’s relations with Trump in his first term and then the former president Joe Biden.

In February, Indians deported the United States on military planes, tightened their hands and legs, Modi panicked Trump just a few days before going to see Trump to stop the high taxes.

The relationship was also seriously tested at the end of 2023 when the United States said it had thwarted a plot with Indian links to kill the Sikh separatist leader on the US soil. New Delhi has denied any government relations with the plot.

“The reputation of the Modi government in the United States has diminished in the United States,” said Sikh Dev Moni, a former Indian diplomat and a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

“And there may be people who think that India or Modi has not been taught a lesson, and if this trend continues, I am worried that this challenge is quite powerful and strong to come to India.”

Strengthening relationships with US rivals

A source of the Indian government said that India needs to gradually repair relations with the United States, while more engagements with other countries, which have faced Trump’s prices and aid cuts, including the African Union and the BRICS block, including Brazil, Russia, Russia and South Africa.

India is already taking some steps with Russia and China.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit New Delhi this year, and on Tuesday, Russia said that the two countries have “discussed especially strengthening defense cooperation in the form of privileged strategic partnerships.”

India has also promoted engagement with China, which is a change after years of tension after a deadly border conflict in 2020. Modi is ready to meet China for the first time since 2018.

“Russia will try to exploit the breakdown between the United States and India by proposing to restore new projects in Russia-Russia China,” said Alexei Zakhaarov, an analyst at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

“India will undoubtedly keep in mind structural factors such as sanctions against Russia and will try to compromise with the Trump administration.”