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Mukesh Aghi, President and CEO of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), believes that “trust has broken” between New Delhi and Washington as bilateral trade tensions continue to persist. In an exclusive interview with IANS in Washington, Aghi said that the “sentiment in Delhi is of surprise, disappointment and disbelief”.
“Only a few weeks ago, the relationship was so strong, and suddenly it has nosedived because of the Russian oil purchase,” he added. Commenting on the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in China, Aghi said that India’s visible outreach to Beijing and Moscow resulted from the US’ “coercive diplomacy”.
“I think when you treat a sovereign country by coercive diplomacy or by threat, what are the choices left to the nation? And in this case, Prime Minister Modi basically used that option,” he noted.
However, he asserted that India’s relationship with China won’t go “very far”.
“Because in every aspect, India and China are not aligned. India’s strategic positioning, India’s economic need, India’s technological partnership are all aligned with the US,” he added.
The Trump administration has singled out India and slapped an additional tariff of 25 per cent for buying Russian oil and increasing the total levies to 50 per cent, a treatment that India calls “unfair and unjustified”.
Trump, on Wednesday, pushed back against criticism of his inaction on Russia, saying that his measures against India demonstrated otherwise.
“If you remember, two weeks ago, I did, I said, if India buys (Russian oil), India’s got big problems, and that’s what happened,” Trump said.
Aghi emphasised that the US action against India on Russian oil “makes no sense”.
“Russian oil was being bought in concurrence with Biden administration. It brought price stability to Europeans and the rest of the world. China buys more Russian oil. Europe buys more energy from Russia. So, to penalise India, who is a strategic ally, sends a wrong message.”
In his view, the Russian oil purchase is just an “excuse”.
“I think the crux of the issue is that India refused to publicly say that a third party intervened in the India-Pakistan issue. And that has irked the President as he’s on his quest to win a Nobel Prize. And if India says no, it does have an impact,” he said.
Aghi believed that New Delhi has “shown maturity” in not responding aggressively to US measures.
“India has not said anything and just kept quiet and is exploring ways to find a common ground to ensure that the partnership continues. I think so far, what we have seen is tremendous restraint and maturity on the part of India,” he said.
Looking ahead, Aghi hoped that the two sides could find an “off-ramp” soon.
“The off-ramp could be a one-to-one dialogue. It could be a phone call between the two leaders. Or it could be that India, by design, starts buying more US oil and less Russian oil. I think it’s just a matter of providing an offering and basically ensuring that both sides come out winning,” he concluded.
