India US relations have gone cold since Trump. Particularly with the +25% tariff for buying Russian oil which they perceive as unfair since
India followed the US in sanctioning Iran in 2019 which is why they increased purchases of Russian oil.
The West had set a price cap on Russian oil after the Ukraine war as everyone understood that completely banning its purchase would drive oil prices up undesirably.
The Biden administration was explicit in acknowledging and accepting that India buy Russian oil. It was seen as necessary to stabilize the market.
China buys more oil than India from Russia and faces no specific additional tariff.
The EU continues to buy gas and the US buys uranium from Russia (which also allows them to continue to finance the war).
The IMF (which is seen as an American/Western institution) continues to bail out Pakistan and the peception in India is that some of those funds will reach non-state actors who will perpetuate violence in India.
There are actually more reasons but India recently hosted Putin for a state visit and rolled out the red carpet for him. India and Russia have historically had good relations (the Soviet Union used its UN security council position to support India against postcolonial Western interference on several occasions) but this was friendlier than many were expecting and it is in large part due to the current US administration being inconsistent on trade policy and incompetent at diplomacy.
India’s official stance is ‘strategic autonomy’ or multialignment but at least right now it seems to have more friends in the East than in the West.
India US relations have gone cold since Trump. Particularly with the +25% tariff for buying Russian oil which they perceive as unfair since
India followed the US in sanctioning Iran in 2019 which is why they increased purchases of Russian oil.
The West had set a price cap on Russian oil after the Ukraine war as everyone understood that completely banning its purchase would drive oil prices up undesirably.
The Biden administration was explicit in acknowledging and accepting that India buy Russian oil. It was seen as necessary to stabilize the market.
China buys more oil than India from Russia and faces no specific additional tariff.
The EU continues to buy gas and the US buys uranium from Russia (which also allows them to continue to finance the war).
The IMF (which is seen as an American/Western institution) continues to bail out Pakistan and the peception in India is that some of those funds will reach non-state actors who will perpetuate violence in India.
There are actually more reasons but India recently hosted Putin for a state visit and rolled out the red carpet for him. India and Russia have historically had good relations (the Soviet Union used its UN security council position to support India against postcolonial Western interference on several occasions) but this was friendlier than many were expecting and it is in large part due to the current US administration being inconsistent on trade policy and incompetent at diplomacy.
India’s official stance is ‘strategic autonomy’ or multialignment but at least right now it seems to have more friends in the East than in the West.
Thanks for the info, I didn’t realise India-US relations had become quite so dire.