Amid escalating trade tensions, Union minister Piyush Goyal on Friday asserted that India would not “bow down to anybody”.
At a media summit, Goyal answered a question related to the global tariff war and whether there was an attempt to make the country bow down.
“No one has ever come who could make India bow. It is impossible. Even if someone tries a hundred thousand times, they cannot make India bow,” the minister of commerce and industry said at the Business Today’s India@100 summit.
Goyal’s remarks come amid tensions between the United States and India over US President Donald Trump’s announcement of trade tariffs against New Delhi.
On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order imposing a 25 per cent tariff on India for purchasing Russian oil. The penalty was on top of another 25 per cent tariff that took effect on Thursday.
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Trump has criticised India and Russia over recent days regarding trade and energy relations between the two nations, and has urged New Delhi to reduce its Russian oil imports.
Russia accounts for nearly 60 per cent of India’s armed forces’ inventory and has become one of the largest suppliers of energy to India, providing 35 per cent of its needs in the first half of 2025.
India has defended its energy purchases from Russia and criticised the US and the European Union for singling out New Delhi at a time when other countries buying Russian energy haven’t faced penalties from the Trump administration.
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In a statement, the ministry of external affairs had pointed out that India began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. “The United States at that time actively encouraged such imports by India for strengthening global energy markets stability,” the MEA had said.
It had also flagged that the United States continues to import uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for its EV industry, fertilisers, as well as chemicals, from Russia.
