https://www.rediff.com/news/report/indi ... 250905.htm
India will 'say sorry' and make a deal: Top Trump official
Yoshita Singh, September 05, 2025
Terming India as the ‘vowel' between Russia and China in the BRICS grouping, United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday said New Delhi will be at the negotiating table and will try to make a deal with President Donald Trump in a couple of months.
"So, I think yes, in a month or two months, I think India is going to be at the table, and they're going to say they're sorry, and they're going to try to make a deal with Donald Trump," Lutnick said in an interview with Bloomberg.
"And it will be on Donald Trump's desk how he wants to deal with (Narendra) Modi, and we leave that to him. That's why he's the President,” he added.
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“What they're doing is, because the oil is sanctioned, it's really, really cheap because the Russians are trying to find people to buy it. And so the Indians have just decided, ‘Ah, the heck with it. Let's buy it cheap and make a ton of money',” he said.
Describing this as “just plain wrong” and “ridiculous”, Lutnick said India needs to decide which side it wants to be on.
When asked if the US is willing to negotiate with India, he said, “We're always willing to talk.”
He went on to say that “the Chinese sell to us. The Indians sell to us. They're not going to be able to sell to each other. We are the consumer of the world. People have to remember, it's our $30 trillion economy that is the consumer of the world. So eventually they all have to come back to the customer, because we all know eventually the customer is always right.”
He said that India doesn't yet want to open its market, stop buying Russian oil and stop being a part of the BRICS.
“They're the vowel between Russia and China (in BRICS). If that's who you want to be, go be it. But either support the dollar, support the United States of America, support your biggest client, who is the American consumer, or I guess you're going to pay a 50% tariff. And let's see how long this lasts,” he said.
When asked about the “hardening of the line” between Trump and Prime Minister Modi and if he sees any type of deal in the next 1-2 months, Lutnick cited the example of Canadian PM Mark Carney, saying he got elected “with this term elbows up, meaning, let's fight with America' but he finally dropped his retaliatory tariffs.
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Gautam
on a stopover from USA 
