Slick diplomacy: Trump’s crude u-turn on Russia sanctions bails out India
US President Donald Trump has issued an executive order waiving sanctions on Indian oil imports, citing national interest amid domestic fuel price concerns. The move effectively pauses threatened tariffs on India while maintaining the administration's ability to reinstate them later.
Why it matters
Highlights the tension between US foreign policy goals regarding Russia and the economic realities of domestic inflation and international trade relations.
TOI correspondent from Washington: For months, MAGA supremo Donald Trump and his minions threatened to “crush” India’s economy for New Delhi’s purchase of Russian oil. The economics has now caught up with the rhetoric. Faced with soaring fuel prices at home and a widely forecast rout in the mid-term elections, the US President has reversed course and put most of the Russia sanctions on ice, effectively leaving India off the hook for now.The presidential U-turn, announced in an executive order issued on Friday evening (when governments typically drop bad/embarrassing news), invokes the president’s authority to waive provisions of the Graham Act passed last month “in the national interests of the United States.” Among them: 500% tariffs on Russian goods; 100% tariffs on the five largest buyers of Russian oil and gas (which would include India); and 100% tariffs on the top facilitators of Russian sanctions evasion.The waiver follows Trump's surprise…
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