New Delhi: A day after American President Donald Trump lashed out at New Delhi on Truth Social, calling India-US trade ties a “disaster” and “totally one-sided”, former US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday, “Because of Pakistan’s willingness to do business deals with the Trump family, he (Trump) has thrown the India relationship over the side.”
Sullivan, who served in the Joe Biden administration, made the remarks in an interview with the YouTube channel MeidasTouch. “That is a huge strategic harm in its own right because a strong US-India relationship serves our (Washington’s) interests. And that only reinforces your view that you’ve got to hedge against the United States,” he added, stressing that the bipartisan effort to deepen ties with India was meant to strengthen cooperation on technology, economics and countering China.
The former US NSA also cautioned that such an approach undermines America’s reliability with its allies. “Our word should be our bond. We should be good for what we say. Our friends should be able to rely on us, and that has always been our strength. And what’s happening with India right now has huge direct impacts. But it also has this reverberating impact across all our relationships and partnerships in the world,” he said.
Pakistan, crypto & Trump
Trump’s escalating rhetoric against India has coincided with his warming ties to Pakistan. Earlier this year, the US president-backed platform World Liberty Finance (WLF) signed agreements with the Pakistan Crypto Council to boost blockchain investment. Trump and his affiliates reportedly hold a 60 percent stake in WLF.
In June, he and Pakistan army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir discussed trade, economic development and cryptocurrency at the White House. By July, Trump announced a new trade deal with Islamabad, pledging US help in developing Pakistan’s “massive oil reserves”. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had hailed the agreement as “historic”.
Trump’s trade tirade
The US president, meanwhile, renewed his criticism of India, claiming that the US is New Delhi’s “biggest client”, but receives little in return. “We do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us. It has been a totally one-sided disaster,” he wrote on Truth Social Monday.
The outburst followed a series of attacks by Trump’s aides, including Peter Navarro, Scott Bessent, and Vice President J.D. Vance, who have targeted India for purchasing Russian oil and defence systems. After imposing a baseline 25 percent tariff on Indian goods from 1 August, the US introduced an additional 25 percent punitive tariff starting 27 August, citing India’s continued imports from Russia.
Navarro went further, alleging that Indian “oil lobbies” are tied to Russian refineries and accusing Brahmin elites of “profiteering” from Russian crude.
Trump echoed those arguments, writing: “India buys most of its oil and military products from Russia, very little from the US. They have now offered to cut their tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late.”
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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