Nikki Haley Asks India To Take Trump’s View On Russian Oil ‘Seriously’

Haley highlighted decades of “friendship and goodwill” between India and the US, the world’s two largest democracies. It provides a “solid basis to move past the current turbulence,” she added.  

She said that the US and India “should not lose sight of what matters most: our shared goals.” “To face China, the United States must have a friend in India,” she added. 

“India stands alone in its potential to manufacture at China-like scale for products that can’t be quickly or efficiently produced here (in the US),” Haley said in her article.  

Haley, the former Governor of South Carolina, was the US Ambassador to the United Nations under Trump’s first presidential term, becoming the first Indian-American to be appointed to a cabinet-level post in the US administration.

In 2013, she officially announced her candidacy for the 2024 presidential election and withdrew from the race in March last year. President Trump has doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50%, including a 25% additional duties for India’s purchase of Russian crude oil that will come into effect from Aug. 27.

Defending its purchase of Russian crude oil, India has been maintaining that its energy procurement is driven by national interest and market dynamics.

India turned to purchasing Russian oil sold at a discount after Western countries imposed sanctions on Moscow and shunned its supplies over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.