It is laudable that India has taken a mature view of Donald Trump’s tariff tantrums while using its right to point out the eccentricities. It is moot whether standing up to a bully will have the desired outcome in a negotiated settlement of a trade deal with the world’s largest economy. But India is not going to surrender its sovereign right to secure its energy needs in a cost-effective way by buying Russian oil. Trump’s supreme powers are said to be heavily employed in solving the world’s military conflicts save the ones in Ukraine and Gaza, one of which he detests and the other he encourages. He is, however, not going to get his way by badgering India to pay penalties for funding Russia’s war in Ukraine. Trump’s disappointment at not being able to rein in Vladimir Putin may be reflected in his bizarre actions against India. Russia’s capacity to deter all US strategic and military moves, including a symbolic repositioning of two nuclear submarines, is well-known. It is one country with intercontinental-capable weaponry to forestall any forced détente through the carrot and stick of trade or stealth-bombing as the US President did with Iran. When his insincere stand against India trading with Russia was challenged with the fact that the US was still buying from it fertilisers and chemicals, besides enriched uranium for nuclear fuel — and did so for more than $3 billion in 2024 — he did offer the excuse of not knowing this fact. That Trumpian tariff hostility was not aimed at the EU which traded freely with Russia in 2024 to the extent of $78 bn, including buying liquefied natural gas worth more than $23 bn, exposes the double standards that both Trump and the EU are guilty of. Having failed to frighten China with impossible tariff rates like 150 per cent, Trump was forced to beat a retreat when China and Japan created panic in the US bond and stock markets by selling about $1 trillion worth US Treasury notes last April. He is now picking on an easy target like India that has, paradoxically, been a country friendly to the US if not quite a strategic ally, save in the loose Quad alignment. It is obvious that the West is once again riding the moral high horse when it comes to dealing with India. The country is being singled out now for practising its own doctrine of strategic neutrality over decades while trading on its own terms with most of the world, including Russia and China. India may not be doing itself a favour by pointing out the duplicity of the West, but the time to take a stand was forced upon it, especially when Trump threatened to ratchet up “in a day” the tariffs on India for indirectly funding the Ukraine war. Considering his whimsicality in announcing deadlines and tariff rates that are altered with the speed of a quick-change artiste, India’s trade with the US is not a lost cause yet. India must be prepared to pursue negotiations in an even-handed manner with the US trade team, regardless of what Trump and his aides have been saying in denouncing India, which is the whipping boy now. This is a challenging time, but it is also an opportunity to redefine who is an ally, friend or foe. It cannot have gone unnoticed that Russia is standing up for India in the war of trade and tariffs.
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