US Commerce Secretary Lutnick escalates rhetoric on India

Washington, Sep 5 US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick escalated his rhetoric on the prevailing trade tensions with India, saying that New Delhi “does not yet want to open its market and “it should stop being a part of BRICS.”

In an interview with Bloomberg on Friday, Lutnick said that the US is "always willing to talk”. However, he appeared to set preconditions for India.

“India doesn't yet want to open their market. Stop buying Russian oil, right? And stop being a part of BRICS, right? They are the 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 per cent tariff. And let's see how long this lasts,” he added.

India has repeatedly rejected allegations that the BRICS is striving for de-dollarisation.

Early Friday, US President Donald Trump also took a swipe, saying that India and Russia seem to have been "lost" to China.

“Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!," he wrote on Truth Social.

Meanwhile, Lutnick reiterated the US opposition to India’s share of Russian crude in its oil imports, calling it “plain wrong.”

“Before the Russian conflict, the Indians bought less than 2 per cent of their oil from Russia, less than 2 per cent and now they're buying 40 per cent of their oil from Russia. The Indians have just decided, let's buy it cheap and make a ton of money. But you know what that is? Just plain wrong. They either need to decide which side they want to be on,” he added.

Lutnick argued that the attraction of the US economy would bring India back to the table.

“The Chinese sell to us. The Indians sell to us. They're not gonna be able to sell to each other. We are the consumer of the world. People have to remember, it's our $30 trillion economy that is the consumer of the world. So eventually they all have to come back to the customer,” he boasted.

Meanwhile, in New Delhi, the spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Randhir Jaiswal, also rejected the “inaccurate and misleading” accusations made by White House advisor Peter Navarro.

On India-US ties, the MEA spokesperson believed that the bilateral “partnership has weathered several transitions and challenges before” and India remained “focused on the substantive agenda that the two countries have committed to,” and hoped that “the relationship will continue to move forward based on mutual respect, and shared interests.”

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