India Will Say 'Sorry', Return To Negotiating Table 'In Month Or Two': US Commerce Secy

Shortly after US President Donald Trump said India and Russia have been lost to the 'deepest, darkest' China, United States Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said that he expects India to be at the table to make a trade deal in a month or two.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Lutnick said that Washington is "always willing to talk" and it was "wrong for India" to increase purchases of Russian oil.

"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," said Lutnick.

"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.

He criticised India for its purchases of Russian oil, Lutnick said that before the Russian conflict, India bought less than two per cent of its oil from Russia and “now they're buying 40% of their oil from Russia.

Lutnick has also urged India to support the US dollar, and stop being a part of BRICS.

"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 added.

Notably, the India-US ties plunged to the lowest in decades after Trump imposed tariffs as high as 50% on Indian imports, and made remarks publicly to target the country. His trade advisor, Peter Navarro, went on to describe the Ukraine war as "Modi's war", and alleged that the business elites in India are primarily benefitting from the discounted crude purchased from Russia.

(With inputs from PTI)