Trump, team ‘frustrated’ with India over trade talks, says US treasury secretary

United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday said that President Donald Trump and his team negotiating the trade agreement with India have been “frustrated” with New Delhi, CNBC reported.

“India came to the table early,” Bessent said in an interview to the news channel. “They’ve been slow rolling things. So I think that the president, the whole trade team has been frustrated with them.”

The treasury secretary said that India had also been a large buyer of sanctioned Russian oil that was then being resold as refined products. “So, you know, they have not been a great global actor,” he added.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that India’s purchase of Russian oil was helping sustain Moscow’s war efforts in Ukraine, adding that this was “most certainly a point of irritation” in New Delhi’s relationship with Washington.

“Look, global trade – India is an ally,” Rubio said in an interview to Fox Radio. “It is a strategic partner. Like anything in foreign policy, you’re not going to align 100% of the time on everything.”

Noting that India had “huge energy needs”, the secretary of state said that New Delhi buys from Moscow “because Russian oil is sanctioned and cheap and…in many cases, they’re selling it under the global price because of the...

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