After India PM Modi meets with Putin, President Trump fires off a statement
After Indian Prime Minister Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met at a recent summit in China, President Trump released a statement
by Summer Lane | September 1, 2025
President Donald Trump fired off a statement on Monday morning about the trade relationship between the United States and India, amid Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us,” the U.S. president wrote.
President Trump continued, “In other words, they sell us massive amounts of goods, their biggest ‘client,’ but we sell them very little – Until now a totally one sided relationship, and it has been for many decades. The reason is that India has charged us, until now, such high Tariffs, the most of any country, that our businesses are unable to sell into India.”
In August, the president imposed a 50 percent tariff on the majority of U.S. imports from India over the country’s continued purchase of oil from Russia, per The Guardian. This was another 25 percent increase from early August, again in response to India’s purchase of Russian oil, as the president has worked hard to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine.
On Monday, PM Modi and President Putin met at a regional summit in China. According to ABC, Putin referred to Modi as a “dear friend” and the two spoke warmly of each other during the summit.
Modi even posted a photo on Sunday of traveling in the same vehicle with Putin on the way to the summit venue. “Conversations with him are always insightful,” he wrote on X.
Could this public display of cooperation be an attempt by both India and Russia to stymie President Trump’s economic pressure on both countries amid strife in Eastern Europe?
The president said in his statement that India buys “most of its oil and military products from Russia, very little from the U.S.”
He also said that India offered to cut their tariffs to zero, “but it’s getting late. They should have done so years ago. Just some simple facts for people to ponder!!!”
