NSA Doval’s visit commenced on a day when US President Donald Trump signed an executive order slapping an additional 25 percent tariff on Indian imports.
Trump Tariffs on India: In a major move after US President Donald Trump unleashed an all-out tariff war against India for purchasing oil and military hardware from Russia, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval Thursday met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin during the former’s visit to Moscow.
What Doval and Putin discussed?
A video shared by Moscow’s Kremlin press service showed NSA Doval shaking hands with the Russian President before the two sat down to hold talks. While the details of the Doval-Putin meeting have not been made public, its believed that the Indian NSA was in Moscow to discuss measures to counter Trump’s tariff war against India.
“We have got a very special relationship, long relationship and we highly value our strategic partnership. We have had high-level engagements and these have contributed very substantially,” Doval said after the meeting with Putin, according to Sputnik News.
Earlier, Doval also held talks with Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu.
NSA Doval’s visit commenced on day when Donald Trump signed an executive order slapping an additional 25 percent tariff on Indian goods as a penalty for buying Russian oil and weapons, doubling it to 50 per cent.
Ajit Doval arrived in Moscow on Wednesday to hold crucial talks on bilateral energy and defence ties and to prepare the ground for President Putin’s visit to India later this year, according to official sources.
When is Putin visiting India?
Meanwhile, NSA Doval refuted media reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin was set to visit at the end of August, stating that no specific date or time has been worked out yet, but noted that the dates are “almost finalized”.
“We are very excited and delighted to learn about the visit of His Excellency, the President of Russia, President Putin, to India. I think that the dates are almost finalized now. The more important thing is that the summit meetings have always been a watershed point,” Doval was quoted as saying by Russian media outlets.
Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Russia in July last year, where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the two leaders had lauded the time-tested India-Russia relations, which is “based on trust, mutual understanding and strategic convergence.”
Trump tariffs on India
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump slapped an additional 25 percent tariff on Indian imports, taking the total tariffs imposed on Indian goods to 50 percent. Trump signed an executive order imposing the additional tariff less than 14 hours before his initial tariffs on India were set to come into effect.
The US President called the additional tariffs on India as a “punishment” for purchasing Russian oil.
“I find that the Government of India is currently directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil. Accordingly, and as consistent with applicable law, articles of India imported into the customs territory of the United States shall be subject to an additional ad valorem rate of duty of 25 percent,” the order read.
