PM Modi and US President Donald Trump
America is facing trouble due to oil trade between India and Russia. Despite imposing heavy tariffs on India, US President Donald Trump is constantly making rhetoric against India. Now there has been an altercation on social media between Trump’s trade and construction affairs advisor Peter Navaro and the world’s richest man Alan Musk regarding India.
The quarrel began when a post came on Musk’s social media platform X about India buying oil from Russia, which Navaro misunderstood. Navarro is also called Trump’s Guru, while Musk was once considered to be a special of Trump. However, now there has been distance between Musk and Trump.
How did the controversy start?
The controversy started when an article was published in the Washington Post, in which there was a discussion of the contradictions of the India policy of Trump administration. In response to the same article, Peter Navaro posted on the social media platform X and accused India that he is buying oil from Russia and hurting America’s jobs.
Navaro claimed that India has now become Russia’s oil refining hub and it is a ‘oil money laundering’ in a way. He said that before the attack on Ukraine, India did not buy oil from Russia, but now it is only doing so to earn profit.
Musk’s company defends India
X reacted strongly to Navaro’s post. The statement issued by the company said that India’s buying oil from Russia is neither a violation of any ban nor is it only for profit. This is an important decision related to his energy security. The X also said that America has a trade surplus in the service sector with India and the US itself imports some goods from Russia, which cannot be ignored.
Trump and Musk’s relationship rift
Peter Navarro is considered Trump’s ‘Right Hand’, while Alan Musk was once considered close to Trump. But now the roads of both have been separated. Navaro described X’s comment as “nonsense” and accused Musk of spreading ‘publicity’. Questioning India’s intention, he said, “India is buying oil from Russia only for profit. Its publicity machine is going on continuously. The murder of Ukrainian people should stop and theft of American jobs too.”
After the trade deal came to a standstill
Strategic and economic cooperation has been strong between India and America in the last two decades, but in recent times, there has been a deadlock in the talks on trade agreement. This is the reason that the US is getting to hear sharp comments about India. Donald Trump had earlier talked about imposing 50 percent tariff on India. At the same time, he also claimed that he abolished military tension between India and Pakistan, which India rejected.
India told the charge baseless
Apart from this, India has also dismissed the allegations of Navaro and described them as ‘wrong and misleading’. India says that it is under global rules and its energy needs to buy oil from Russia. The situation in India is clear, the country makes decisions for its energy security and economic interests, not under the pressure of anyone.