JERUSALEM — On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with J.P. Singh, India’s ambassador to Israel, to talk about how the two countries may work together more. This was a big diplomatic step. After the discussion, the PTI news agency said that Netanyahu thinks it would be in the “interest of India and the United States” to settle their continuing trade battle. The Israeli leader also said he wanted to go to India soon, which shows that he really wants to strengthen the strategic cooperation.
The office of the Israeli Prime Minister acknowledged the meeting on X and said that the talks were mostly on improving relations between the two countries, especially when it came to “security and economic issues.” In a different meeting with a group of Indian journalists, Netanyahu stressed the “huge scope” for more cooperation, especially in important areas like sharing intelligence and fighting terrorism.
This is happening at the same time as India and Israel are trying to figure out how to deal with the new tariffs that US President Donald Trump has put in place. Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday that added a 25% tariff on Indian goods. This brought the total tariff to a startling 50%. This was done because India kept buying Russian crude oil. On July 30, the first 25% tariff was announced. It went into effect on August 7. The second 25% tariff will go into effect 21 days later, on August 27.
India has fiercely opposed the US, saying again that these moves are “unfair, unjustified, and unreasonable.” The Ministry of External Affairs defended its position by saying that its energy purchases are “driven by national interest and market dynamics” and are necessary to “ensure the energy security of 1.4 billion people of India.” The government’s statement also said that other countries are doing the same kind of commerce for their own interests, which makes the US’s choice to go after India “extremely unfortunate.” In the end, the Indian government said, “It will take all actions necessary to protect its national interests.”
India gets around 88% of the crude oil it needs from other countries. Before 2021, only 0.2% of India’s total crude oil imports came from Russia.