It is widely admitted even in the Western mass media, that President Trump’s tariff warfare has only driven its targets—particularly India—closer to China and other members of the BRICS, and pushed the entire Global Majority to increasingly trade among themselves, while reducing their involvement with Washington and its punitive tariff policy.
Peter Navarro, President Trump’s trade adviser, chose to rub salt in the wound with remarks to the press on Aug. 21. Navarro guaranteed that 25% additional punitive tariffs would be applied to India—on top of the 25% tariffs already in place—on Aug. 27, exactly four days before the opening of the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Tianjin, China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has confirmed his participation in that meeting—marking his first visit to China in seven years, due to significant tensions between the two nations—where he will also hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the SCO summit.
that “Navarro’s comments came hours after Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said New Delhi is ‘perplexed’ with the logic of the U.S. tariffs. ‘Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, India virtually bought no Russian oil,’ Navarro said. ‘It was like almost 1% of their need. The percentage has now gone up to 35%.... They don’t need the oil. It’s a refining profit-sharing scheme. It’s a laundromat for the Kremlin. That’s the reality of that.’”
In addition to calling India, the largest nation in the world with a population of 1.4 billion, a “laundromat for the Kremlin,” Navarro has also referred to India as a “tariff Maharaja,” and accused it of co-responsibility for the war in Ukraine, because of oil purchases from Russia. “India doesn’t appear to want to recognize its role in the bloodshed,” Navarro added. “It simply doesn’t. It’s cozying up to [Chinese President] Xi Jinping.”
