US President Donald Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday made a fresh attack on India and said New Delhi is "coming to the table". His remark comes ahead of the trade talks between the countries, scheduled to be held on Tuesday.
Speaking to CNBC International, Navarro continued to attack India over its trade policies and said that New Delhi has "very high non-tariff barriers", forcing the Trump administration to deal with the Modi government like it deals with "every other country that does that".
"Prime Minister Modi sent out a very conciliatory, nice, constructive tweet, and President Trump responded to that. We'll see that this is how this works. But as a practical matter, we know that on the trade side, they have the highest tariffs of any major country," he said.
'Indian refiners in bed with Russia'
Navarro once again attacked India for continuing to procure Russian oil despite pressure from the US and said that Indian refiners were in "bed with Russian refiners" immediately after the beginning of the Ukraine war. He also accused India of making money via "unfair trade" and helping Russia buy weapons.
"It's crazy stuff, because they made money off of us in unfair trade. Then they use that money to buy Russian oil, and then the Russians use that to buy weapons, and then we as taxpayers have to pay more for this, for the defence of Ukraine," he told CNBC International.
Navarro's attacks and India-US trade negotiations
Navarro has repeatedly made attacks on India amid ongoing tensions between the two nations over Trump tariffs. His Monday's remarks, however, come ahead of US chief negotiator Brendan Lynch's arrival in India for a day-long talk on the India-US bilateral trade deal on Tuesday.
The meeting comes Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed Trump's social media saying the two countries would continue to hold trade talks. So far, India and the US have held five rounds of bilateral trade agreement (BTA) negotiations.
