Trump Criticizes India-Russia Economic Ties Amid 25% Tariff Move; Issues Warning to Former Russian President

Highlights

US president said that while India ‘is our friend’, it imposes stiff tariffs on US goods and buys too much Russian oil.

The United States President Donald Trump on Thursday took a swipe at India and Russia saying the two countries could “take their dead economies down together.”

Donald Trump has said that India has nothing much to trade with Russia, as the US has almost “no economic relationship with India” because of the “grossly” high tariffs. Likewise, Trump India Russia relations do almost no business together.”

He further said, “Let’s keep it that way, " and Medvedev warned Trump, the failed former President of Russia who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!”

Trump’s attack comes after the former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had said that Trump is playing “the ultimatum game” with Russia, and that such tactics could result in a war that would involve the United States.

“I also understand India has large trade deficits with the U.S. and they buy oil and energy from Russia and various military and other items,” he told reporters.

Earlier, Trump had imposed a 25 percent tariff on all goods imported from India along with an unspecified penalty from August 1 after the two countries failed to clinch an interim US India trade deal. This had led to nervousness among exporters.

‘Little business, far too high tariffs’

Trump, who made several claims over the last four months of having got India to agree to slash tariffs, took to social media to announce the US Pakistan oil deal and every new ultimatum creates internal stresses that bring the country closer to war, not against Russia or Ukraine, but against itself, he added.

“Remember, while India is our friend, we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their Tariffs are far too high, among the highest in the World, and they have the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary Trade Barriers of any Country,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.