“India is a civilisational state… wants to be friends with everyone and wants to do business, but cannot take dictation,” KP Fabian says on Trump’s latest. It’s been at least a couple of days that US President Donald Trump softened his stance towards India, on which he has put massive trade tariffs. That’s because the tariffs did not have much effect, former Indian diplomat KP Fabian argued on Sunday.
Fabian said Trump is beginning to realise that his aggressive trade tactics with India, particularly the additional 25 per cent tariff due to New Delhi’s purchase of Russian oil — taking the total to 50 per cent – “did not produce the desired outcome”. Trump has called US-India ties a “very special relationship”, and underlined his personal equation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has reciprocated saying the feeling is mutual. Fabian, however, remained circumspect. “Prime Minister Modi did what is appropriate to respond to a cordial tweet, but from this, we cannot conclude that we are going to see any early end to this, what I call ‘Triple T’ — Trumped-up Trump Tariff. Trumped-up means without basis,” Fabian said. He did add that it is “reasonably clear” that President Trump has “started to realise that he was wrong” in assuming India would “surrender”.
“What he has to realise is that… India is a civilisational state… India wants to be friends with everyone and wants to do business, but India cannot take dictation,” Fabian added. Last week, President Trump, while speaking at the White House, had affirmed that he and PM Modi would always be friends. He expressed displeasure over what “he (PM Modi) is doing” in contemporary times. When asked if he was ready for a positive reset in the equation with India, Trump said, “I always will… There is nothing to worry about. We just have moments on occasion.” Responding to the news agency’s X post on this exchange, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said: “Deeply appreciate and fully reciprocate President Trump’s sentiments and positive assessment of our ties. India and the US have a very positive and forward-looking Comprehensive and Global Strategic Partnership.”
The tariffs, for now, stay at 50 per cent, while talks for a trade deal remain on a halt as India insists it has red lines on entry of US firms into agriculture and other key sectors. Earlier, another former India diplomat Jawed Ashraf said on Saturday that India need need not necessarily align with competing global power camps. Ashraf, a former envoy to France, said, “Indians and India need to get out of this mindset that either we have to be in one camp or we have to be in another camp. We are not a small, weak country that needs these crutches in our external relationships.
