Hours after Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing 25 per cent tariff on Indian imports, New Delhi on Friday expressed confidence that the bilateral relationship would weather the challenges, refusing to be provoked into responding in like tenor to his disparaging remarks.

Replying to questions on how Trump’s latest statements targeting India would affect the bilateral relationship, external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal suggested it would stay the course.

“India and the United States share a comprehensive global strategic partnership anchored in shared interests, democratic values, and robust people-to-people ties. This partnership has weathered several transitions and challenges,” he said.

“We remain focused on the substantive agenda that our two countries have committed to and are confident that the relationship will continue to move forward.”

Jaiswal, however, sidestepped the question whether India had lodged an official protest with the US in New Delhi or Washington against Trump’s repeated claims of having brokered peace between India and Pakistan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Parliament on Tuesday that no world leader had asked India to stop Operation Sindoor.

On the India-US defence partnership and Trump’s bid to wean New Delhi away from Moscow in the matter of military hardware purchases, Jaiswal underlined that “we have a strong defence partnership with the US which has been strengthening over the last several years”.

“There is potential for this partnership to grow further under the India-US Compact for the 21st Century,” he said.

The “US-India Compact (Catalysing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st Century” was launched in February this year during Modi’s US visit, with the objective of driving transformative change across key pillars of cooperation.

India also sought to remain outwardly unfazed by Trump’s announcement of a penalty for buying oil and military equipment from Russia.

“Our bilateral relationships with various countries stand on their own merit and should not be seen from the prism of a third country. India and Russia have a steady and time-tested relationship,” Jaiswal said, on being asked whether Trump’s remarks had put a strain on New Delhi’s ties with Moscow.

Trump had, in particular, targeted India’s defence-related purchases from Russia, eager as the US is to see New Delhi buy more from Washington.

“The sourcing of our defence requirements is determined solely by our national security imperatives and strategic assessments,” Jaiswal said.

Earlier in the day, responding in the Lok Sabha to the question whether India had received any formal proposal from the US on the sale of F-35 fighter jets, junior foreign minister Kirti Vardhan Singh had said: “No formal discussions have been held as yet on this issue.”

The India-US joint statement issued after the Trump-Modi meeting in Washington on February 13 had said the US would review its policy on releasing fifth-generation fighters (such as the F-35) and undersea systems to India.