00:00Okay, would you say tariffs are the only issue, or are there other irritants, would you say, in the relationship between New Delhi and Washington right now?
00:08Well, if you look at the fact that since Bill Clinton went to India just before his second term ended, there was this massive strategic pivot towards India by various U.S. administrations across the political divide.
00:24So George W. Bush, Barack Obama, President Trump himself during his first term, and then President Biden, all of them sought this pivot to India to do with the Indo-Pacific strategy of which India was a key element.
00:39What seems to have perhaps changed now is that under the second Trump administration, they are focusing on trade, that that seems to be the primary aspect, perhaps even more important for them than the Indo-Pacific aspect.
00:56And that is where tensions have emerged, especially to do with tariffs and also the aspect about India purchasing Russian oil.
01:07It's very interesting that just a few hours ago, President Trump actually put out a message on his Truth Social, talking about that his frustration was that India wasn't buying enough American oil as opposed to Russian oil.
01:19And I think that's what it ultimately stems for. The Russia aspect seems to be a misnomer.
01:25It's more about the bilateral trade that the U.S., especially the Trump administration, wants from India.
01:31But perhaps the way they're going about it isn't necessarily going to produce the desired results.
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