White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has said that it is risky for American companies to transfer cutting-edge military capabilities to India, which is "now cozying up to both Russia and China."
In an opinion piece published in the Financial Times, Navarro severely criticised Delhi’s buying of oil from Moscow. India's purchases of Russian crude were funding Moscow's war in Ukraine and has to stop, he wrote.
"If India wants to be treated as a strategic partner of the US, it needs to start acting like one," Navarro wrote in the opinion piece.
It was headlined: “India’s oil lobby is funding Putin’s war machine — that has to stop”.
Over the weekend the US hit the pause button on the bilateral trade talks with India, deferring a scheduled negotiation team visit from August 25, signalling the Donald Trump administration’s intent to intensify pressure as Delhi continues to purchase Russian oil.
“This visit is likely to be rescheduled,” a government official, who did not wish to be named, told news agency PTI on Saturday evening.
The visit of the US team, led by assistant US trade representative Brendan Lynch, was scheduled to take place between August 25-29. The parleys were hoped to ease the tension between the two allies after US President Donald Trump doubled the reciprocal tariff to 50 per cent.
So far, five rounds of talks have been completed for the proposed bilateral trade agreement and the US team was scheduled to visit for the sixth round.