The 50% tariffs President Trump announced this week were officially designed to drive a wedge between India and Russia, but so far the only rupture they've caused is with the United States.
The steep levies over India's purchases of Russian oil are threatening to unravel years of calculated U.S. efforts to position New Delhi as a bulwark against China.
New Delhi has signaled it won't stop buying Russian oil any time soon — but it has frozen plans to purchase arms from the U.S. and canceled a high-level defense visit to Washington, per Reuters.
The sudden split is particularly jarring considering leaders from both parties — including Trump himself — spent more than a decade building up U.S.-India ties as a linchpin of their strategies to compete with China.
On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to "further deepen" ties with Moscow following a "very good" call with his "friend" Vladimir Putin.
A day earlier, Modi spoke with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, a fellow member of the BRICS and another of Trump's biggest tariff targets.
Modi plans to visit China later this month for the first time in seven years, Beijing announced Friday, with Chinese state media citing a "warming" of ties. He'll also host Putin later this year.
Posted by John3262005