Photo: Maxim Shipenkov/AFP
Joakim Scheffer
09/08/2025 00:48
BRICS appears unlikely to yield to US President Donald Trump’s threat of “secondary sanctions” – more specifically, secondary tariffs. After India was hit with an additional 25% tariff on certain exports to the US for continuing to import Russian oil, Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed their support for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and pledged to strengthen their partnership in several areas, particularly energy and trade.
“We did it with India. We are doing it probably with a couple of others, one of them could be China,” Trump said when asked which countries might be targeted over their Russian oil imports on 8 August. Currently, no other nation has been subjected to secondary tariffs, but Brazil and potentially Türkiye are reportedly on the list. Iran was also hit with a new round of US sanctions, with Tehran being the first to openly support India, calling the tariffs a “modern form of economic imperialism.”
On 7 August, Lula and Modi held a phone call in which they reiterated their commitment to elevate the strategic partnership between their two countries, highlighting areas such as trade, technology, energy, defense, agriculture, health, and people-to-people ties. The call also emphasized their mutual intent to boost bilateral trade from around $12 billion to over $20 billion by 2030, expand Mercosur preferential trade ties, and discuss virtual payment platforms.
Xi Jinping also spoke with Modi, reaffirming his support for India's economic and energy sovereignty—despite India being one of China's major regional rivals. Modi announced his likely visit to China in late August to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, hosted by Xi from 31 August to 1 September. This will mark the first high-level visit since 2019, underscoring the significance of the current developments. The Chinese Foreign Ministry welcomed Modi’s participation, describing the event as a “gathering of solidarity, friendship, and fruitful results.” It also signaled an expectation of a new phase of high-quality development, marked by increased solidarity, coordination, energy, and productivity among member states.
Putin also spoke with Modi, reporting on his meeting with Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, regarding Ukraine. Following the three-hour negotiation, Trump and Putin are likely to meet in a high-stakes summit—another historic meeting, following their tense 2018 encounter in Helsinki, which is widely regarded as a defeat for the US president. During the call, both Putin and Modi reaffirmed their commitment to deepening the strategic partnership between Moscow and New Delhi. Modi invited Putin to visit India in 2025.
India has long been Washington’s most important ally in the Indo-Pacific region. Under President George W. Bush, the two countries launched the “Next Steps in Strategic Partnership” framework in 2004, as the US began to view India as a strategic counterweight to China's growing influence in Asia. The partnership has been largely focused on defense, and in 2016, Washington elevated India to Major Defense Partner status. India is also a member of the Quad, a security organization comprising the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and India. After imposing the additional tariffs on Wednesday, US officials reaffirmed their commitment to defense cooperation and India's strategic partnership status, though media reports suggest that New Delhi may halt US military procurement due to the current tensions.
India also maintains close ties with Russia, particularly in the areas of energy and defense. Since the war broke out in 2022 and Moscow faced the first wave of sanctions on oil exports, Russia began selling Ural crude to New Delhi and Beijing at a discounted price. During the initial months, India made billions by processing Russian crude, with some companies reporting $6 billion in profits. Some estimates place India's savings over the past two to three years at up to $25 billion due to the discounts. Additionally, the discounted crude supported refinery margins, benefited energy-intensive industries, and reduced dependency on more expensive imports—factors that have supported broader industrial output. The State Bank of India projects that halting Russian oil imports could raise India’s annual fuel bill by an additional $9–12 billion.
