New Delhi: India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), on Friday, issued a sharp rebuttal to White House trade adviser Peter Navarro’s recent statements against India, calling them ‘inaccurate and misleading’.
“We have seen the inaccurate and misleading statements made by Mr Navarro, and obviously reject them,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
Navarro had recently defended the Trump administration’s tariffs on India. In a Fox News interview, he had said “India is nothing but a laundromat for the Kremlin,” claiming that Indian refiners buy discounted Russian crude, process it and sell the finished products at a premium abroad.
“What happened? Well, the Russian refiners went in and got into bed with big oil India. Putin gives (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi a discount on the crude. They refine it and they ship it to Europe, Africa and Asia at a big premium and they make a ton of money,” Navarro had said.
The trade adviser had also claimed that ‘Brahmins are profiteering’ at the expense of Indians, in his bid to justify US president Donald Trump’s 50% tariff on Indian goods.
Jaiswal sounded optimistic about India-US relations and said: “…there is a comprehensive global strategic partnership between the two countries, and we want to work on this partnership and take it forward.”
He termed India-US relations as ‘very important’ and said that both countries share a comprehensive global strategic partnership, which is anchored in their shared interests, democratic values, and robust people-to-people ties.
“This partnership has weathered several transitions and challenges. We remain focused on the substantive agenda that our two countries have committed to, and we hope that the relationship will continue to move forward based on mutual respect and shared interests,” Jaiswal added.
On the Quad Summit and India-US relations, he said: “We continue to remain engaged with the US side on trade issues…We see the Quad as a valuable forum for discussion among the four member countries on shared interests on several issues.”
“The leaders’ summit is scheduled through diplomatic consultations among the member countries,” the MEA spokesperson added.
