‘India is coming to table’: Trump’s aide Peter Navarro ahead of India-US trade talks

Ahead of India-US trade talks, Peter Navarro, an adviser to US President Donald Trump, has struck a triumphant tone and said that “India is coming to the table”.

For several weeks, Navarro has constantly criticised India over the purchase of Russian oil and trade policies. As Trump’s attack dog, he has taken the lead in accusing India of funding the Russian war on Ukraine and profiteering from the purchase of Russian crude oil.

In an interview with CNBC, Navarro on Monday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tweets in response to Trump’s comments were signs that India was coming to the table for talks.

“India is coming to the table. Prime Minister Modi sent out a very conciliatory, nice, constructive tweet, and President Trump responded to that. We’ll see that this is how this works,” said Navarro.

However, Navarro continued the tirade against India’s tariffs and purchase of Russian oil, calling Indian refiners “bandits”.

“Indian refiners got in bed with the Russian refiners immediately after the invasion and they’re making out like bandits. It’s crazy stuff because they made money off of us in unfair trade. Then they use that money to buy Russian oil and then the Russians use that to buy weapons, and then we as taxpayers have to pay more for this for the defence of Ukraine. And so how can that be?” said Navarro.

US delegation to arrive in India for talks

Navarro’s tirade came ahead of the US delegation’s visit to India for trade talks.

A US delegation will arrive in India on Monday evening to hold trade talks on Tuesday, sources told CNBC-TV 18.

The Trump administration has shared its roadmap on trade and tariffs, and India is engaging to understand its perspective and explore convergence, similar to its approach with other partners, sources said.

In recent days, the Trump administration has publicly pressed India to purchase American agricultural products like corn.

Previously, it had been reported that one of the irritants in the talks was the American insistence to open up India’s agriculture and dairy sectors. India has made it clear that both of these sectors would remain out of bounds in any trade deal.