After US President Donald Trump imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, Washington DC-based South Asia analyst and foreign affairs expert Michael Kugelman termed it the “worst crisis" that the India-US relationship has faced since the last two decades.
In an interview with ANI, Kugelman, Director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Centre, said the action on New Delhi seemed to stem from Trump taking India’s firm and independent stance as a personal affront.
Speaking about why Trump did not punish China but targeted India, Kugelman said Beijing has not stood out there and refused to let President Trump take credit for his role in the ceasefire.
“China has not had its leader have a long conversation with Trump on the phone and essentially dictate to him what’s right and what’s wrong. These are things that happened with India. So, I think that’s why perhaps President Trump would reserve some of his greatest ire on the trade and tariff front for India and for the Indian government. Indeed, it’s a double standard. It’s hypocritical, whatever you want to say…” Kugelman told ANI.
India’s has US President had a role to play in the ceasefire with Pakistan in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor. However, this claim was repeated by Trump on several occasions, attributing the end of hostilities to trade offers made by America.
Foreign affairs minister S Jaishankar had in the past too denied any external mediation in the ceasefire. However, it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion in Parliament during a special discussion on Operation Sindoor that seemed to seal the deal. “We had said from day one that our action was non-escalatory. No leader in the world asked us to stop Operation Sindoor," the prime minister said.
Reacting to Kugelman’s observations, former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal questioned why PM Modi could not call out Trump’s lies despite the US President’s fallacious claims.
Taking to X, Sibal wrote: ‘Why play the charade of giving false credit for a ceasefire based on trade threats and one announced over the head of India’s leader, creating thereby impression India was pressured to agree? Trump can keep assailing India as a tariff king, threaten tariffs, talk of his interest in mediating the Kashmir issue but Modi dare not tell him what’s right and what’s wrong? India has sovereign interests which it has to defend."
Kugelman also said the tariff announcement “is not all that surprising". “The President has also appeared very committed to following through with tariffs. Despite the potential impact, the damaging impact, this could have on the US-India relationship, it’s not that much of a surprise to me that in the end the President decided to follow through on his threat to impose this additional penalty," he said.
According to Kugelman, here is potential for the India-US relationship to be salvaged not just because of the natural, shared interests and the strategic convergences, but this is a relationship that is multifaceted and has many different areas of cooperation.
Trump, when asked about a similar stand against China, said: “Could happen. Depends on how we do. Could happen."
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