After Navarro, another Trump aide targets India, demands apology from New Delhi

While tensions continue to simmer between India and the United States, yet another top official of US President Donald Trump’s administration made provocative remarks against New Delhi. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Friday that he expects India to apologise and resume the stalled trade talks with Washington, DC.

“In a month or two, I think India’s going to be at the table, and they’re gonna 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 [Indian PM Narendra] Modi,” Lutnick told Bloomberg on Friday.

The remarks from Trump’s commerce secretary came while he was commenting on Trump’s initial proclamation that the United States lost India to Russia and ‘deepest darkest’ China. In a TruthSocial post featuring a recent photo of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping side by side, Trump wished both Modi, Putin and Xi a “long and prosperous future”.

While speaking to Bloomberg, Lutnick characterised PM Modi’s assembly with Russian and Chinese leaders as mere “bravado,” claiming that Canada’s initial tough stance led to economic setbacks for the country.

“[PM Mark] Carney got elected with this term ’elbows up’, meaning, let’s fight with America. They put on retaliatory tariffs. They were all bravado, and what happened was that their GDP went negative 1.6 per cent, unemployment rocketing towards 8 per cent. And what did Carney just do? He just finally dropped his retaliatory tariffs,” Lutnick said.

“So I think what happens is it’s all bravado, because you think it feels good to fight with the biggest clients in the world. But eventually, your businesses are going to say, ‘You’ve got to stop this and go make a deal with America, ‘” he furthered.

Lutnick slams New Delhi for buying Russian oil

In the Friday interview, the American commerce secretary charged New Delhi with not opening its markets for American goods and asked it to stop buying discounted Russian oil that Washington says funds Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

“India doesn’t yet want to open their market. Stop buying Russian oil. And stop being a part of BRICS. They’re the vowel between Russia and China. If that’s who you want to be, go be it,” Lutnick exclaimed. Over the years, BRICS has become a prominent intergovernmental organisation comprising ten countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Lutnick went ahead to say that India either supports the US dollar or faces tariffs. “Either support the dollar, support the United States of America, support your biggest client, who’s the American consumer, or, I guess, you’re gonna pay 50 per cent tariff, and let’s see how long this lasts,” Lutnick said.

Lutnick pushes the same rhetoric

Lutnick’s take on the matter was similar to the one pushed by Trump’s trade representative, Peter Navarro. Just like Navarro, Lutnick accused India of capitalising on the Ukraine war, saying India’s Russian oil imports have surged due to discounted prices amid sanctions.

“Because the oil is sanctioned, it’s really, really cheap, because the Russians are trying to find people to buy it. And so the Indians have just decided… let’s buy it cheap and make a ton of money,” he said, adding India must determine where its allegiance lies. “It’s ridiculous, and they [India] either need to decide which side they want to be on.”

However, New Delhi has often questioned this rhetoric, pointing out how China is not being scrutinised in a similar fashion despite the fact that it buys more oil from Russia than India.