The point to note for India is that we must not panic. The United States may be our largest export destination, but high tariffs will not exactly mean gloom and doom. Sure, we can throw some morsels as we continue negotiating, but we must be firm that some red lines cannot be crossed, no matter what, asserts Shreekant Sambrani.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday invited President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to visit India and the Ukrainian leader said he would be happy to travel to the 'great' country.
With the India-US trade talks moving in the right direction, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal is expected to visit Washington soon, sources said.
Bolton slammed Trump's tariff policy, asserting that it has "shredded" decades of Western efforts to align India away from its Cold War ties with the then Soviet Union (Russia) and address the growing threat from China.
A meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the SCO summit is being planned.
The Global Times, a prominent state-run Chinese media outlet, published an article titled "China and India are cooperation partners, not rivals: Xi," highlighting President Xi Jinping's remarks about the bilateral meeting, saying, "as long as the two countries stick to this overarching direction, China-India relations can sustain steady and long-term growth."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Tianjin, as both nations look to strengthen ties amid global trade tensions.
A few years ago, when top officials of Indian state-run refiners went to Dubai to negotiate a crude oil supply contract, a senior official from state-owned Saudi Aramco told them, "We can negotiate on anything, but I am the last man standing for you. "Nobody can offer the range of crudes we do with certainty," an official who was part of the negotiating team recalls. Perhaps that explains why Saudi Arabia is less concerned about losing its place as India's premier oil supplier to an upstart like Russia, which emerged from nowhere to become India's biggest crude oil supplier in September and October.
Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended lower on Thursday after US President Donald Trump announced the imposition of a 25 per cent tariff on all goods coming from India starting August 1 and an unspecified penalty for buying Russian crude oil and military equipment.
'India is too important to the United States for there to be any kind of a permanent bump in the relationship.'
India will need to travel back in time and seek inspiration from football greats Tulsidas Balaram and Chuni Goswami to deftly dribble around and sidestep the West-imposed price cap on exports of Russian seaborne crude oil. India depends on imported oil to meet 86 per cent of its needs, of which nearly a quarter now comes from Russia. The copious flows are roughly 10 per cent cheaper than competing suppliers helping India save billions of dollars in fuel costs.
Higher discounts on crude oil offered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to wean India away from Russian crude may soon see Indian refiners ramping up purchases from the Gulf nation, officials at multiple refiners said. They also pointed to the recent agreement on trade settlement in national currencies signed between India and the UAE as a reason for this. "While discussions are underway, the UAE has offered discounts on crude, which will be more than that of the current level of Russian discounts.
Putin further described the Ukraine conflict as a mere "pretext" by Western powers to take these broader punitive measures against countries maintaining strong economic ties with Russia.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar says Operation Sindoor conveyed India's resolve to act against terrorism, following UN Security Council's call to bring Pahalgam attackers to justice.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has called for India and Russia to adopt a creative and innovative approach to address complex geopolitical challenges, emphasizing diversification and expansion of cooperation.
US Ambassador-designate Sergio Gor emphasizes the importance of the India-US relationship after meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, focusing on cooperation in defence, trade, and critical minerals.
'If nominal growth improves and earnings pick up, Indian stock markets could see a rally next year.'
In response to US criticism of India's oil imports from Russia, the Indian Army shared a 1971 news clip highlighting the US's role in arming Pakistan.
Addressing a huge gathering in Lahore, Imran played a video clip of India's Foreign Minister S Jaishankar from Bratislava Forum held in Slovakia and praised the Indian minister for standing firm to the United States pressure over buying cheap oil from Russia.
The Indian team has returned from the US after holding trade talks with their American counterparts in New York, an official said on Thursday. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, who led the team, will be back on Friday.
'Both initiatives are welcome moves and we would commit ourselves with focused attention aligned with the national priorities, and pursue our exploration initiatives.'
State governments have requested the Centre for export incentives, lifting of import duty in the case of cotton for the textile sector and GST exemptions.
Brave statements such as we will continue to be the fastest growing large country are of no consolation, because the direction of trade also determines the flow of investment, points out M Govinda Rao.
GST 2.0 may cushion consumers against US tariffs, but like the 2019 corporate tax cut, it risks being another tactical fix rather than a structural growth strategy, expects Debashis Basu.
'The US values its relationship with India and under the strong leadership of President Donald J Trump and Prime Minister Modi, I am optimistic about the days ahead for both of our nations.'
'Geopolitical stability could remove the crude oil risk premium.'
Officials from State-run refiners contend that savings from purchase of Russian oil are used to offset a part of the losses in revenues from selling transport fuels and LPG at State-set rates.
Chinese envoy Xu Feihong stated that China opposes the US imposing tariffs on India, amidst a thaw in Sino-India relations and concerns over global trade disruptions.
Indian officials will focus on expanding the country's footprint in oil-rich Siberia when they meet their Russian counterparts at the four-day 7th Eastern Economic Forum beginning Monday in Vladivostok. The two sides will discuss the possibility of joint oil exploration in the area and cooperation in running offshore oil and gas fields Western companies are in the process of exiting, officials said in New Delhi. Pavan Kapoor, India's ambassador to Russia, will lead the official-level talks at the summit scheduled September 5-8.
India is expected to ramp up its purchase of crude oil from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the coming months following discussions between the two countries on the sidelines of the ongoing COP28 summit in Dubai, multiple sources in the know said. The UAE has historically been India's third-largest source of crude. It has suffered the largest drop in shipments since Indian refiners began to binge on Russian crude in 2022.
This might help explain why our global outreach has received such a tepid response. We have chosen to be transactional with the world, as our UN votes reveal, points out Aakar Patel.
Strategic affairs experts express concern over US President Donald Trump's tariffs on India, his 'bullying tactics,' and increasing attempts to hyphenate New Delhi with Islamabad, signaling a potential shift in the bilateral relationship.
Equity and oil markets can breathe easy for now, as the developments in Russia are unlikely to trigger a runaway rally in crude oil prices, said analysts. India, which imports nearly 80 per cent of its crude oil requirement, has been dependent on cheap Russian oil over the past few months to keep inflation - a sore point for the equity markets - in check. For the Indian markets that are expected to remain volatile amid these developments, analysts believe, the progress of monsoon, fund flows - both foreign institutional investor (FII) and domestic - and the upcoming corporate earnings season back home remain key.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's top oil firm, has bought as much as 3 million barrels of crude oil that Russia had offered at steep discount to prevailing international rates, sources said. The purchase, made through a trader, is the first since Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine that brought international pressure for isolating Putin administration. Sources aware of the matter said IOC bought Urals crude for May delivery at a discount of $20-25 a barrel to dated Brent.
'New Delhi is not naive about its foreign policy choices.'
By threatening to punish India with high tariff, Trump is actually planting a tantalising thought in the Indian mind that the Modi government should suitably 'incentivise' him, explains Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The deal fell through over unresolved disagreements over contentious issues, mainly on agriculture and automotive sector tariffs.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said India has ramped up the import of crude oil from Russia at discounted prices amid sanctions on Moscow as part of the country's inflation management. "In a situation where global prices were going beyond anyone's affordability, at that stage to take a very strong political decision, I respect the prime minister for his courage on this to get it from Russia because they are ready to give it to you at discount. And how speedily did we manage to do it," she said. India ramped up its import from Russia from about 2 per cent of the total shipment of petroleum products to 12-13 per cent in a couple of months as part of inflation management, she said at a seminar organised by economic think-tank Icrier.
India's demand for petroleum products like petrol and diesel will grow by 7.73 per cent in 2022, the fastest pace in the world, an OPEC report said. India's demand for oil products is projected to rise from 4.77 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 to 5.14 million bpd in 2022, OPEC said in its monthly oil report. The growth in demand is the fastest in the world ahead of 1.23 per cent of China, 3.39 per cent of the US and 4.62 per cent of Europe.
'What the Americans want is to destabilise Iran. For destabilising Iran, you need access. 'One access is through Iraq. The other access is through Pakistan.'
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