Trump declares BRICS 'dead' ahead of bilateral meeting with PM Modi at White House
US President Donald Trump attacked BRICS nations ahead of his meeting with PM Modi at White House. Trump said, "BRICS was made for a bad purpose."
Ahead of his meeting with PM Modi, US President Donald Trump made a scathing attack on the BRICS nations over de-dollarisation attempts, declaring it to be a 'dead' group. Trump said, "BRICS is dead", as he accused the grouping of being made for a 'bad purpose', as he claimed that he has conveyed to BRICS countries that they will be "hit by a 100% tariff" if "they want to play games with the Dollar." He warned the BRICS countries, saying, "The day they mention that they want to do it, they will come back and say, We beg you, we beg you. BRICS is dead since I mentioned that."
Trump also attacked Canada amid the ongoing tariff row between both countries. In a fresh warning to Ottawa, Trump said, "Canada has been very bad to us on trade. But now Canada is going to have to start paying up. Canada has been tough on the military because they have a very low military cost. They think we are going to protect them with our military, which is unfair." Trump reiterated his desire to make Canada the 51st state of the US, saying, "I think Canada is going to be a very serious contender to be our 51st state."
Earlier, PM Modi arrived at the White House to hold wide-ranging talks with US President Donald Trump amid expectations of a raft of specific outcomes including firming up of a new defence framework and boosting cooperation in areas of trade, energy and critical technology.
Ahead of his meeting with Modi, the American President announced a new reciprocal tariff policy for all the trading partners of the US, a move that could have some impact on India's trade with the US as well.
Before meeting Trump, the Indian prime minister held separate talks with US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, billionaire Elon Musk and Republican leader Vivek Ramaswamy.
PM Modi kicked off his two-day visit to Washington DC on Wednesday evening (Thursday morning India time) after concluding his trip to France. Ahead of the Modi-Trump meeting, diplomatic sources indicated that the focus of the talks will be on enhancing cooperation in areas of defence, energy, technology, infrastructure and trade.
The Trump administration is particularly keen on expanding Washington's defence sales to India and the two sides may broadly finalise a couple of deals including co-production of Stryker armoured fighting vehicles in India. Besides defence, trade is set to be a high priority area in the deliberations between the two leaders.
Two days back, Trump announced a 25 per cent tariff on global steel and aluminium imports into the US. The move is expected to hit the Indian firms exporting steel and aluminium to the US.
(With agency inputs)