Following US President Donald Trump’s remark that “we’ve lost India to Russia and China,” United States Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has now said that India will eventually apologise to the United States.
In an interview with Bloomberg, when asked about his response to Trump’s earlier comment pointing out that while Chinese and European nations are buying Russian energy, India is being singled out, Lutnick said:
“Before the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the Indian bought less than 2% of oil from Russia and now they are buying 40% of their oil from Russia. What they are doing is, because the oil is sanctioned, it’s really-really cheap.. the Russians are trying to find people to buy it and so the Indians have just decided.. Ah the heck with it. Let's buy it cheap and make a ton of money. But you know what? That is just plain wrong.”
He continued, “It’s ridiculous... They either need to decide which side they want to be on.”
Lutnick went on to stress the US role as the world’s key consumer: “You know what’s funny is... the Chinese sell to us. The Indians sell to us. They’re not going to be able to sell to each other. We are the consumer of the world. People have to remember it’s our 30 trillion dollar economy that is the consumer of the world.”
According to Lutnick, India will eventually have to return to the US market because “we all know eventually the customer is always right.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has taken the fight over tariffs to the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, September 3, it asked the justices to rule swiftly that the president holds the power to impose sweeping import taxes under federal law.
When asked about whether the US had lost leverage in this case, especially with American companies shifting manufacturing from China to India, Lutnick responded: “Dissent was 7 to 4 and the current Chief Justice, the former Chief Justice and the incoming Chief Justice sided with President Trump. I think you are going to see the Supreme Court side with Donald Trump and I don’t think we’ve lost leverage.”
On India, Lutnick said, “What we’ve lost is that India doesn’t yet want to open their market, stop buying Russian oil.. And stop being a part of BRICS... There’s a vowel between Russia and China. If that’s who you want to be, go be it, but either support the dollar, support the United States of America, support your biggest client who is the American consumer or I guess you’re going to pay a 50% tariff and let’s see how long this lasts.”
When asked about the recent meeting between Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi,interpreted as a show of BRICS unity, and whether there might be a lower-rate deal with India in the next two months, Lutnick cited Canada’s experience with retaliatory tariffs. “Their GDP (became) negative 1.6%, unemployment rocketing towards 8% and what did (PM Mike) Carney just do? He just finally, finally, dropped his retaliatory tariffs.”
He added, “I think what happens is it’s all bravado because you think it feels good to fight with the biggest client in the world. But eventually, your businesses are going to say you’ve got to stop this and go make your deal with America.”
Lutnick claimed, “In a month or two months, India’s going to be at the table and they’re going to say they’re sorry and they’re going to try to make a deal with Donald Trump and it will be on Donald Trump’s desk how he wants to deal with Modi. And we leave that to him.”
Following the optics of the recently concluded Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin, China, Trump in a Truth Social post on Friday, shared a photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping standing together at the summit and wrote: "Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!"
Trump's remark came days after Xi hosted PM Modi and Putin at the SCO Summit in Tianjin where the three leaders displayed a show of unity, in a clear message to the Unied States amid the tariff war raged by the US President.
In an exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday made it clear that India will continue purchasing Russian oil, stressing that decisions will be guided solely by national interest. “Whether it is Russian oil or anything else, we will take a call based on what suits our needs in terms of rates, logistics or whatever.
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