Trump's anti-India tirade on trade overlooks key facts

New Delhi, Sep 1 (IANS) While US President Donald Trump criticised India’s trade policies in a Truth Social post on Monday, describing the economic relationship between the two countries as "totally one sided", the truth of the matter is that India has stepped up purchases of oil and gas from the United States in accordance with New Delhi’s assurance to reduce the trade deficit between the two countries.

“What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us. In other words, they sell us massive amounts of goods, their biggest 'client', but we sell them very little," Trump wrote on social media.

The US President mentioned India’s continued reliance on Russia for energy and defence equipment, but quite overlooked the fact that India’s oil and gas imports from the US have jumped by as much as 51 per cent from January to June this year.

Besides, India and the US have moved to strengthen defence ties even after Trump came to power. The Pentagon had acknowledged this in a statement in July this year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his meeting with President Trump in Washington, had assured that India would increase energy imports from the US to $25 billion in 2025 from $15 billion in 2024 to help reduce the trade deficit of the US. This was followed by government-owned Indian oil and gas companies entering into discussions for more long-term energy purchases from US companies. These purchases have been moving ahead.

Official figures show that India’s oil and gas imports from the US have jumped by as much as 51 per cent from January to June this year. The country’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from the US nearly doubled to $2.46 billion in the financial year 2024-25 from $1.41 billion in 2023-24.

Indian Oil Corporation, the country’s largest oil company, placed orders of around 2 million barrels of oil in August for October delivery. This was followed up with another 5 million barrels purchase of US West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery in October and November by India’s top refiner, according to a Reuters report from Singapore. Similarly, government-owned Bharat Petroleum and private sector Reliance Industries have also been buying US oil, with the latest consignments bought in August.

Trump has also mentioned India’s defence purchases from Russia in his latest post on Truth Social. However, this has never come in the way of India-US relations as Washington has acknowledged that this was due to historic geopolitical reasons.

As far as India-US defence ties are concerned, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his American counterpart Pete Hegseth agreed to firm up a 10-year framework to further expand defence and strategic ties between India and the US

The decision on the defence framework was mentioned in a Pentagon statement that was released on July 2, a day after Rajnath Singh and Hegseth held a phone conversation.

It said the two sides discussed pending major US defence sales to India and the imperative of close defence industrial cooperation between the two countries.

"Secretary Hegseth emphasised the priority the United States places on India as its key defence partner in South Asia," the Pentagon said.

It said the two leaders reviewed the "considerable progress" both countries have made toward achieving the defence goals set out in the February 2025 joint statement by President Trump and Prime Minister Modi.

"The two discussed pending major US defence sales to India and the imperative of close defence industrial cooperation between the two countries," the Pentagon readout said without providing further details.

Rajnath Singh had urged Hegseth to expedite the delivery of GE F404 engines to power the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft. He also pitched for early finalisation of a proposed deal between Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) and US defence major GE Aerospace for joint production of F414 jet engines in India.

Prime Minister Modi and President Trump, in February, had reaffirmed the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership during their high-profile meeting in Washington. The two leaders unveiled key initiatives across defence, trade, energy, and technology. Highlights include the US-India COMPACT framework, major defence procurements, and the TRUST initiative focused on AI, semiconductors, and space. Both nations set an ambitious $500 billion trade target by 2030, reinforcing their commitment to economic and industrial collaboration.

Besides, what Trump appears to have ignored is the structural nature of the trade, as India is a large supplier of generic medicines to US consumers at affordable prices that help to keep their medical bills in check.

India’s fast-growing commercial airlines are also large customers for US planemaker Boeing which is facing increasing competition from Europe’s Airbus.

--IANS

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