As tariff tensions between India and the United States escalated on Wednesday with an additional 25 per cent fine on New Delhi for its purchases of Russian oil and military equipment, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reiterated his faith in the resilience of India-US ties.
Speaking with Fox Business in an interview, he said, "I do think India's the world's largest democracy, the US is the world's largest economy. I think at the end of the day we will come together."
While commenting on the situation regarding the ongoing trade talks between the two countries, Bessent said, "we still don't have a deal," again labeling India's attitude toward the negotiations as "performative." Although earlier hopes had been that there could be an agreement around May or June, India has taken a careful and measured approach to the deal.
"The Indians came in early after Liberation Day to start negotiating on tariffs and we still don't have a deal. I thought we would have a deal by May or June. I thought India could be our earlier deals and they tapped us along in terms of negotiations. There's also that aspect of Russian crude purchases which they have been profiteering on," he said.
Bessent also explained that US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have a "very good rapport at the top level". He said, "This is a complicated relationship. President Trump and Prime Minister Modi have a very good rapport at the top level, but it's not just about Russian oil."
On bilateral trade, Bessent agreed with President Trump's position, stating that the US has a huge trade deficit with India. He noted that when there is a "schism" in trade relations, the country that is the 'deficit' is the 'winner' of the 'negotiation', and the country with the 'surplus' should "worry".
"The US is the deficit country. When there is a schism in trade relations, the deficit country's at an advantage. It's the surplus country that should worry. So, the Indians are selling to us. They have very high tariffs and we have a very large deficit with them," the Treasury Secretary said.
While answering whether he is worried about India setting the trade in rupee, he pointed out that the Indian rupee is at an all-time low against the US dollar and remarked, "A lot of things I worry about. The rupee becoming the reserve currency isn't one of them."
In India, the government has made it clear that it is ready to withstand pressure from the US, with Prime Minister Modi stating that he would "never compromise" farmers' interests.
The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) has sources which say that PM Modi refused four calls from US President Donald Trump in the last several weeks during the tariff dispute, which the newspaper claims indicated his "depth of anger, but also his caution."
