Round The World

New Delhi, 26 September 2025

Trump Targets India

NEW DELHI TO RESPOND!

By Dr. D.K. Giri

(Prof of Practice, NIIS Group of Institutions) 

Donald Trump made a acerbic speech in the UN General Assembly targeting global agencies, actions and countries. The speech made on 23 September had no holds barred. As his wont, Trump spoke scathingly and forthrightly on various issues – global wars, climate change, nuclear and biological weapons, migration, global agencies, namely the United Nations, European Union, India, China, Middle-East and more. His reference to the unabated war in Ukraine, by far drew the most world attention. This was perhaps so as he had made an explicit promise in his election campaign to end the war in Ukraine in matters of days. The indication in his speech was that he would still like to end this horrible war in Ukraine. Let us decipher his strategy from his speech. 

The startling statement he made on Ukraine war was that India and China are financing the Russian war on Ukraine by continuing to buy oil and gas from Russia. He did not spare even the NATO countries who have not cut off much Russian energy and energy products. He riled NATO members by inferring that, “they are funding the war against themselves”. He ridiculed their conduct, “who the hell ever heard of that one”. Note that the US has imposed 25 per cent tariff on India and 25 per cent more punitive tariff on Indian exports for New Delhi buying Russian oil. He is nudging the EU countries to do the same against India. 

What is driving Trump so aggressively against India? Is it the case that he is singling out India or is building an alliance against Russia? Trump claims to be committed to ending the war in Ukraine as well as in Gaza. He admitted that he had hoped to end the war soon in Ukraine because of good relationship with Putin. He also asserted that the war would not have taken place at all if he were the President in place of Joe Biden. 

Now that Putin is not amenable to persuasions and overtures by Trump, the latter has decided to take on Putin through a tariff war. As usual, Trump has changed his mind on Ukraine’s war. Earlier he thought, Ukraine had to make concessions to Russia in terms of the territories already occupied. Now, Trump claims that Ukraine can win back all the territories lost to Russia since the Crimean Peninsula. 

Trump began his speech by claiming to have ended seven wars in seven months including the one between India and Pakistan. The others were between Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, Congo and Rwanda, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia and Armenia and Azerbaijan. Some of these wars were raging from 28 to 36 years. While claiming the credit, Trump asserted that no other world leader has achieved such peace in war-torn countries. He castigated United Nations for not giving him a helping hand not ‘even a phone call’. The UN, in his view, had tremendous potential but desperately failing to play its role. 

Trump targeting India could be interpreted in two ways. One, he is putting pressure on India to support USA in ending the war in Ukraine, more generally, to attract India into the Western camp. He had rubbished Russian and Indian economies as ‘dead economies’. In addition to the overall 50 per cent tariff, USA has revoked the waiver of tariff on Chabahar Port. It has imposed 100 thousand USD visa fee for H-1B professionals. This is a big blow to Indian IT professionals. 

Interestingly, despite the trade and visa issues with India, Trump has always called Prime Minister Modi a ‘good friend’ and having good relationship with New Delhi. He wished Prime Minister Modi on his 75^th birthday. There are exchanges and delegations between India and US at multiple levels. A trade deal between the two countries is being negotiated. The Foreign Minister Jaishankar and his counterpart Mark Rubio have agreed on the importance of sustaining engagement to progress on the priority areas. 

There are reactions from world leaders on India’s position and status vis-à-vis Trump’s remarks. The Ukrainian President Zelenskyy himself has said, “India is mostly with us” and New Delhi would change its attitude to Russia’s energy sector”. The President of Finland, Alexander Stubb said, “Clubbing India, Russia and China is not a good idea. India is with US and the European Union”. He suggested that West should deal with India sensitively as it is an emerging super power. There is support from other parts of the world for India without sharing Trump’s view point. 

European Union and India launched a new strategic agenda on 17 September building on the landmark visit of the EU Commissioners to New Delhi earlier this year. The new agenda is built on five broad pillars covering diverse areas. They are: prosperity and sustainability for trade and investment, technology and innovation, security and defence, connectivity and global issues and more important enablers across pillars – from skills mobility and business engagement to expanding institutional mechanism for dialogue. The importance of this agenda was reflected in the statement by the EU Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas, “the aim is to keep India engaged rather than push them into Russia’s corner”. 

India’s response so far to Trump’s tirade has been muted. Indian leadership still considers Trump a friend. They tend to believe that it may at best be a pressure tactic for trade concessions. The External Affairs Ministry has of course said that, “it is revealing that the very countries criticising India are indulging in trade with Russia. Unlike our case, such trade is not even a vital national compulsion for them”. New Delhi is counting on Trump to change his mind about India. He has to make a hard calculation on whether Indian oil purchase is financing the war machine of Russia. At the same time, can Trump give the similar confidence about India’s security and national interest as former Soviet Union had provided? 

Donald Trump and Prime Minister Modi are likely to meet in the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur and Trump may come over to India to attend the Quad summit in Delhi. Personal interactions make things easier. However, the Ukraine war will still be an elephant in the room. This was clearly stated by Poland’s new President Karol Nawrocki in his maiden speech in the UNGA.  Supporting Donald Trump on many issues, he warned that, “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not only the most serious conflict in Europe since the World War-II, but also a turning point, showing that the existing international order is crumbling before our eyes”. Tracing the root causes of Russian aggression to Moscow’s imperial vision, he urged the world community to stop the war. It is not only Ukraine, there have been drone incursions into Poland, Estonia and Romania and they are no accidents. 

Therefore, New Delhi has to play its diplomatic cards extremely well on its position on Ukraine war; failing which it will cause further disruption not only to Indian economy and foreign policy, but that of the entire world. ---INFA 

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)