New Delhi: Former diplomat Vikas Swarup has claimed that one of the driving forces behind Washington’s recent punitive tariffs on Indian goods is US President Donald Trump’s irritation with New Delhi for not acknowledging his supposed role in brokering peace between India and Pakistan after the May military standoff. Speaking to ANI, the ex–High Commissioner to Canada argued that beyond trade disputes, Trump’s frustration is tied to personal recognition, politics, and his wider ambitions for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Swarup explained that while Pakistan has openly credited Trump even nominating him for the Nobel India has maintained that the ceasefire following Operation Sindoor was negotiated directly between the two countries’ armed forces, without external mediation. This refusal to validate Trump’s narrative, combined with India’s resistance to US “maximalist” demands in trade talks particularly on opening its agricultural and dairy markets has, according to Swarup, led the US administration to exert pressure through tariffs.
The former envoy linked the situation to Trump’s broader image-building as a “global dealmaker,” noting his pattern of inserting himself into multiple conflict resolutions, from Southeast Asia to the Caucasus. Trump, he said, considers the India–Pakistan tension his most significant intervention because of the nuclear dimension, and sees credit for that as a pathway to surpass Barack Obama the only US president to receive a Nobel Peace Prize while in office.
Swarup stressed that the current US–Pakistan bonhomie is tactical and short-term, rooted in financial ventures including cryptocurrency projects in which Trump’s associates have stakes. Pakistan, he said, is using strategic PR, “oil reserve” deals, and a push to brand itself as South Asia’s “Crypto King” to stay in Washington’s good graces. However, he cautioned that this does not mean India–US ties have soured fundamentally, calling the tensions a “storm, not a rupture” in a relationship he described as strategic rather than transactional.
On tariffs, Swarup turned the “Tariff King” label back on Washington, pointing out that the US’s current average tariff rate exceeds India’s, warning it could fuel inflation and hurt American consumers. He urged New Delhi to hold firm, reiterating that “India is too large, too proud” to compromise its strategic autonomy a principle rooted in its post-independence foreign policy.
The former diplomat also accused Pakistan of leveraging “nuclear blackmail” to attract global attention, especially after India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty in retaliation for terror attacks. He claimed Pakistan’s leadership is rattled by its heavy dependence on the rivers governed by the treaty, and is making threats about destroying dams rhetoric he called provocative but impractical.
In July, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on Indian goods and an additional penalty, later doubling the tariff to 50% after India continued importing Russian oil, dampening hopes for a near-term trade truce.