BUILDING ON EXISTING GRIEVANCES
This comes at a time when India-US relations are in a steep decline. New rifts in trade negotiations keep developing.
In August 2025, the Trump administration first imposed 25 per cent tariffs on Indian goods, then an additional 25 per cent tariff to punish New Delhi for purchasing Russian oil.
Although India and the US inked an interim trade deal in February, it came with trade-offs seen to curtail India’s self-professed strategic autonomy.
New Delhi cut its oil imports from Russia and promised to purchase more oil from the US and Venezuela. Its full-fledged shift away from Russian supplies was disrupted, as the US waived the last of its temporary sanctions on Russian oil in May to ease the global energy crisis created by the US-Iran war.
Such policies, however, interfere with India’s autonomous choices on oil supplies – making India’s choices contingent on the whims of US oil waivers.
The India-US trade negotiations on the deal are ongoing, though US pressure tactics continue. As the Indian and US negotiators met in June to mull the interim trade framework, the Trump administration threatened to impose a 12.5 per cent tariff on India, along with 53 other economies, due to allegations of forced labour in the supply chain.
The unease goes beyond trade. Mr Trump’s claim that he mediated the May 2025 India-Pakistan limited conflict was one of the first signs of a developing rupture in relations. His claim goes against India’s longstanding position that disputes with Pakistan should be handled bilaterally. Pakistan has also in recent months seen an upswing in diplomatic capital, playing a role in mediating US-Iran ceasefire talks.
India is also worried, after Mr Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping this May, by the changing rhetoric around the US-China relationship. The US co-opting China in a so-called “G2” (Group of Two) framework could significantly lower India’s weight in US strategic calculus.
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