Former diplomat Vikas Swarup on Friday said that India has always followed the principle of strategic autonomy and will not be “dictated” by anyone, which responds to sharp comments from White House adviser Peter Navarro.
Swarup, who once served as the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Ani that the Trump administration is trying to exert “all kinds of pressure” on New Delhi. “American officials try to exert all kinds of pressure on India. But India is a very proud nation, India is a country that has always followed the principle of strategic autonomy. We will not dictate anyone,” he said.
In a commentary on the ties between India and the US, Swarup said that expectations had been high when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump built a personal report, but the deal never came. “We all thought that, in view of the personal relationship that Prime Minister has developed with President Trump and the fact that President Trump really respects Premier Modi, we thought that an India-US-Handel agreement would be coming quite early. But unfortunately that did not happen,” he noticed.
Yet Swarup kept hope for a breakthrough. “I think the time is still there for the two parties to find a mutually acceptable solution,” he said, warned that “these current comments from the Trump administration will not help the cause.”
Navarro’s comments came after Trump had imposed a rate of 50 percent on Indian input, where New Delhi was accused of using trade profits to buy reduced Russian crude oil and indirectly finance the war of Moscow in Ukraine.
In a post on X, Navarro wrote: “President Trump’s 50 percent rates for Indian input are now in force. This is not just about the unfair trade of India – it is about reducing the financial lifeline that India has extended to Putin’s War Machine.” He accused India of blocking American exports with high rates while benefiting from refining and reselling Russian oil.
During a press conference in Alaska with Trump on August 16, however, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized that trade between the two countries has grown by 20 percent since Trump returned to the office.
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With ani inputs
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