India has criticised the statement by Peter Navarro, a Senior Counsellor for Trade and Manufacturing to the US President, who has said the Ukraine conflict is "(PM) Modi's war" and also that the "the road to peace runs partly through New Delhi”.
In another tirade against India targetting its energy cooperation with Russia, Navarro said that "Brahmins" were profiteering from the Russian oil purchases at the expense of Indian people.
"We have seen the inaccurate and misleading statements made by Mr. Navarro and obviously we reject them. We have also spoken about it earlier," India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a weekly briefing in New Delhi on Friday evening.
Jaiswal said that the ties between India and US were important for New Delhi and were "anchored in our shared interests, democratic values and robust people-to-people ties".
"We remain focused on the substantive agenda that our two countries have committed to, and we hope that the relationship will continue to move forward based on mutual respect and shared interests," Jaiswal said, while also stressing that the India-US comprehensive global strategic partnership has "weathered several transitions and challenges".
The MEA Spokesperson told the briefing that India and the US continue to remain engaged in trade negotiations to work out a bilateral trade agreement (BTA).
Further, Jaiswal reiterated India's stance of backing all the recent efforts towards establishing peace in Ukraine, including the Alaska Summit.
"We hope that all parties will proceed constructively. India supports an early end to the conflict and the establishment of enduring peace," he said.
The MEA Spokesperson refused to react to US President Donald Trump's Truth Social Post on Friday, wherein the US President said that "we have lost India and Russia to the deepest, darkest China".
"I have no comments to offer on this post at this time," Jaiswal said.
In response to another question, the MEA Spokesperson stated that External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar will be participating in the BRICS' Virtual Leaders Summit convened by Brazilian President Lula Inacio Lula Da Silva on 8 September (Monday). The virtual meeting is being convened to discuss the US tariffs, with Brazil and India being slapped with the highest 50% tariff rate among all nations.
"The Brazilian Chair of BRICS has called for a virtual meeting. This meeting would be held on (September) 8th. From our side, it will be the External Affairs Minister who will be participating in it. This BRICS summit is at the Leaders’ level," Jaiswal told the briefing.