US asks India to ditch Russian defence imports

The US commerce secretary has called on India to stop purchasing weapons from Russia, saying that New Delhi and Washington should form the “best relationship.”

“India has historically bought significant amounts of its military equipment from Russia, and we think that is something that needs to end,” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told India Today television.

Russia has been one of India’s top defence suppliers for decades.

Lutnick also opposed any alternative currency to the US dollar by the BRICS.

“India is the 'I' in BRICS, trying to create a currency to replace the dollar as the global economic currency.

These kinds of things do not create the love and affection that we really, deeply feel towards India,” he said, adding: “We would like those things to end. We would like trade to be more fair.”

The remarks came as the Trump administration wants India to bring down tariffs.

President Donald Trump announced on Friday that India has agreed to cut the tariffs.

“India charges us massive tariffs. Massive. You can't even sell anything in India... They have agreed, by the way, they want to cut their tariffs way down now because somebody is finally exposing them for what they have done," Trump told reporters at the White House.

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Source: TRT