India reacts to NATO chief’s claim of PM Modi-Putin call: 'No such conversation took place'
NATO Chief Mark Rutte had alleged that Delhi was on the phone with Putin, and PM Narendra Modi had asked him to explain his strategy on Ukraine because India was being hit with tariffs
India on Friday, outright rejected the claims made by NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, that tariffs imposed by the US led to India asking Russia to explain its Ukraine war strategy, claiming that “no such conversation has taken place.”
Referring to the NATO chief's claims, MEA Official Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal blasted Mark Rutte, labelling his statement as “factually incorrect and entirely baseless.”
“At no point has Prime Minister Modi spoken with President Putin in the manner suggested. No such conversation has taken place,” said Jaiswal.
What did the NATO Chief claim?
On Thursday, while speaking to CNN on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Mark Rutte had claimed that US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on India were having a big impact on Russia.
He alleged that Delhi was on the phone with Putin, and PM Narendra Modi was asking him to explain his strategy on Ukraine because India was being hit with tariffs.
Besides dismissing the NATO chief's claims as “baseless”, the MEA also stressed:
“We expect the leadership of an important institution like Nato to exercise greater responsibility and accuracy in public statements. Speculative or careless remarks that misrepresent the Prime Minister’s engagements or suggest conversations that never occurred are unacceptable."
Trump's tariff tantrums
The NATO chief's claims come amid the tariff tensions between India and the US, as the former navigates the existing 50% levies slapped by Trump, along with the latest 100% tariff on imports of branded or patented pharmaceutical products.
The latest round of tariffs which will come into effect from October 1, comes after the POTUS had previously imposed a total of 50% tariffs on all goods imported from India, on top of the pre-existing 10% baseline import duty on any good imported into the Western nation.
India-US trade talks
Earlier in the day, the government, in a statement said that India, US will continue working together to finalise a “mutually beneficial trade agreement” between the two nations.
The announcement comes after a delegation led by Commerce and Industries Minister, Piyush Goyal visited the US from September 22-24 amid the ongoing tariff tensions.