India’s Prime Minister has been ignoring President Donald Trump’s calls after the U.S. announced it was moving forward with devastating tariffs on Indian products.
The president has tried repeatedly to get Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the phone in the run-up to a 50 percent import tax going into effect Wednesday on products from the world’s fastest-growing major economy, The Telegraph reported, citing Japanese and German news sources.
The Financial Times confirmed that Modi did not communicate with Trump ahead of the tariff deadline because he was worried the U.S. president would demand last-minute concessions.
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The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
Already, Trump had imposed a 25 percent duty on products from India. The tax is paid by American companies, with the costs typically passed along to consumers.
After the two countries failed to reach an agreement to lower the levy, Trump announced earlier this month that he was doubling the rate to 50 percent to punish India for buying Russian oil.
“India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
“They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine. Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!” he added
Afterward he told CNBC, “They’re fueling the war machine, and if they’re going to do that, then I’m not happy.”
Just weeks later, Trump invited Vladimir Putin to a peace summit in Alaska, where he fawned over the Russian president and dropped his demands for a ceasefire in Ukraine.
He has nevertheless remained tough on India, which has continued to buy Russian crude—albeit at lower levels—despite the tariffs, according to the Financial Times. U.S. trade negotiators had planned to visit New Delhi this week, but the trip was called off.
The deterioration in the two countries’ relationship is “head-spinning,” Alyssa Ayres, a former state department official who teaches at George Washington University, told the newspaper.
Trump and Modi had previously enjoyed a warm relationship, with Modi announcing the dawn of MIGA—for Make India Great Again—during a White House visit in February.
“When America and India work together, that is when it’s MAGA plus MIGA, it becomes MEGA, a mega partnership for prosperity,” he said.
But since then, Trump has threatened Apple over its plans to shift some manufacturing to India, mocked the country’s “dead economy,” and made overtures to neighboring Pakistan, with whom India has a complex and at times hostile relationship.
Modi called out Trump in June for taking credit for a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, clarifying that peace talks took place directly between the two rivals, and not through American mediation as Trump had claimed.
India has in turn emerged as one of the hardest-hit countries in Trump’s trade war. Talks stalled in part because New Delhi has refused to pen up the country’s vast agricultural and dairy sectors, according to the Financial Times.
In the meantime, Modi’s government has moved to strengthen ties with Russia and China, with the premier traveling to China this weekend for the first time in seven years.
