What’s behind Trump’s Brics wrath and will India-US trade talks be affected?
Trump’s remarks seem more like a warning to Brics and unlikely to affect India’s efforts to finalise a trade pact with the US, analysts say
In a speech on Tuesday, Trump accused the 10-member bloc – comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, alongside newer entrants such as Iran, Egypt and Indonesia – of undermining the United States and seeking to weaken the dollar’s global reserve currency status.
Losing that status, he said, would be like “losing a war, a major world war”.
Trump’s remarks sparked uncertainty over the fate of trade talks with India, though Washington signalled goodwill by excluding New Delhi from a list of 14 countries hit with new tariffs – a list that included close allies such as Japan and South Korea.
The US had first imposed tariffs on April 2 but paused their full implementation for 90 days. That pause was recently extended to August 1, with Trump framing it as a final deadline for countries to reach bilateral agreements.