US President Donald Trump has imposed steep tariffs on India as part of efforts to apply indirect pressure on Russia to end the Ukraine conflict, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday.
Her statement comes days after Donald Trump doubled India’s tariff to 50 per cent, as he announced an additional 25 per cent levy on the previously announced 25 per cent.
“The President has put tremendous public pressure to bring this war to a close. He’s taken actions, as you’ve seen, sanctions on India and other actions as well," Leavitt said, responding to a question on how long Trump was willing to wait and operate in good faith for Putin.
“He has made himself very clear that he wants to see this war end, and he has scoffed at the ideas of others that have been raised that we should wait another month before any meeting takes place," she said.
“The President wants to move and he wants to bring this war to an end as quickly as possible," she added.
During her briefing, Leavitt also echoed Trump in claiming that the US President ended the military conflict between India and Pakistan.
“Russia and all countries around the world actually respect the United States again. And the President is using the might of American strength to demand that respect from our allies, our friends, our adversaries all around the world," she said.
“And we’ve seen that not just lead to progress with Russia and Ukraine, but also we’ve seen it in the closing of seven global conflicts around the world as well."
“We’ve seen it with the release of hostages in Gaza. We’ve seen it with the end of the conflict between India and Pakistan, which could have resulted in a nuclear war if we had not had a President who believed in the strength and the leverage that comes with the job of being the President of the United States of America," the White House Press Secretary said.
In response to another question, Leavitt said that Trump used trade “in a very powerful way as leverage" to bring the India-Pakistan conflict to an end.
Since May 10, when Donald Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate" ceasefire after a “long night" of talks mediated by Washington, he has repeated his claim over 40 times, and has repeatedly claimed that he “helped settle" the tensions between India and Pakistan.
India has been consistently maintaining that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was reached following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two militaries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said in the Parliament that no leader of any country asked India to stop ‘Operation Sindoor’.
Source: News18
