After U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on Indian goods, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) chief Farooq Abdullah on Monday expressed concern over India’s growing isolation, claiming the U.S. president has drawn closer to Pakistan.
Abdullah said India has focused on projecting strength over its neighbors rather than fostering regional cooperation to tackle shared economic challenges.
“We have no friends left — even our neighbours are no longer with us. Instead of working together, we’ve tried to show that we’re stronger than them,” Abdullah told the media.
“That’s why Indira Gandhi created SAARC — to bring nations together and focus on economic issues and how to resolve them collectively.”
He also criticised the apparent shift in U.S. policy toward Pakistan.
“Suddenly, Trump has become much friendlier with Pakistan. They don’t want us to buy oil from Russia, yet they’ve promised to supply crude oil to Pakistan for refining, helping them bring down petrol and diesel prices. China is already backing them,” he added.
Abdullah claimed that tensions between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were affecting the country.
“It’s a problem between two strong leaders — Trump and Modi. Neither wants to back down, and the country suffers as a result. We’re now facing a 25 percent tariff on our exports to the U.S., plus an additional penalty. This has caused the rupee to fall and the dollar to rise, impacting everyone,” he said.
Meanwhile, Trump confirmed that trade talks with India are ongoing.
“We’re talking to them now. We’ll see what happens,” Trump said during a press conference at the White House, held to mark the signing of a Congressional bill.
He criticised India’s trade policies, calling them among the most protectionist in the world.
“India was the highest, or just about the highest, tariff nation in the world — 100 points, 150 points, even 175 percent on some goods,” Trump claimed.
In a more aggressive tone on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump added:
“I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care. We’ve done very little business with India; their tariffs are too high — among the highest in the world.” (Agencies)
