'Breaking India-Russia ties is foolish, do the opposite of Navarro': American author to Trump
Shapiro argued that India's relationship with both Russia and China is shaped by history and realpolitik rather than American sanctions.
- Sep 3, 2025,
- Updated Sep 3, 2025 7:38 PM IST
Conservative commentator and author Ben Shapiro has warned that the United States risks pushing India closer to China if Donald Trump continues with tariff-heavy trade policies. He also stressed that attempts to sever New Delhi's long-standing ties with Moscow are misguided.
"The idea that we are going to break the relationship between Russia and India is foolish. Modi and Putin have been friendly for a very long time," Shapiro told journalist Megyn Kelly in a discussion on his new book Lions and Scavengers.
Shapiro argued that India's relationship with both Russia and China is shaped by history and realpolitik rather than American sanctions. "India during the entirety of the Cold War was not aligned but actually aligned pretty closely with the Soviet Union. And it took until the mid-2000s for the United States to start really warming up the relationship with India to the point where they’re now considered a military strategic partner as part of the so-called Quad. That'd be like the United States, Japan, Australia, and India," he said.
He pointed to oil trade as a central factor keeping India close to Moscow. "He (Modi) is getting enormous amounts of oil from Vladimir Putin. Something like 47% of all Russian oil exports go to the Chinese and 38% go to the Indians. And that means that since 2022, the Indians have probably saved something like 17 billion on their oil cost because of the amount of oil that they’ve been taking in from the Russians."
According to Shapiro, Trump's tariff war is worsening the situation. "I will say that the tariff war does have some unforeseen consequences. And I think one of those consequences is that instead of boxing China in with all these other countries, if you slap Japan with a tariff and you slap India with a tariff, you slap South Korea with a tariff and then you slap China with a lower tariff than India, then you could theoretically be making moves that push India in the direction of a realignment. And that has some significant impact," he warned.
He added that global markets are already showing stress. "You've seen that the dollar has been dropping as the global reserve currency. The spot price of gold today is highest. And so there are downstream effects to some of these decisions being made."
When asked if it is all about tariffs, Shapiro said, "I don't think it's all about the tariffs. I do think it is largely about the tariffs. We've offered a lot of carrots and not a lot of sticks. And not enough carrots to places like India. The truth is that the trade relationship that we have with India is not wildly important to the United States. They represent our 10th largest trading partner. They do have access to some rare earth minerals. And one of the goals theoretically should have been - if we were going to do cheap goods at all from other parts of the world - to realign that from China to India and make more of an ally of India, specifically because they’re geopolitically between Pakistan and China. By the way, we hold more military exercises with India than we do with NATO."
Shapiro criticised the Navarro line of trade policy, saying Trump should move in the opposite direction. "If you start to see them like actually realign with China, if you start to see them move into the Chinese camp, then that really does upend the geopolitical order. And so again, I'm not a Peter Navarro guy. And I think that Peter Navarro's trade policy, if you do the opposite of that, typically you’re going to do well."
Discussing the optics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi sharing the stage with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in China, Shapiro acknowledged concerns about an "anti-American coalition." "Turkey, Iran, and North Korea were there (at the summit). It was China. It was India, and it was Russia. And that sort of anti-American coalition that territorially now stretches all the way from China in the east to theoretically Turkey in the west, that is a very large land bridge. That is a serious geopolitical issue," he said.
On whether Modi, Putin and Xi fit the “lions” of his book title, Shapiro drew a distinction. “The idea of the lion in the book is somebody who is trying to build as opposed to tear down. So I would say no. Two of those three are attempting to tear down. I'm not sure about Modi. I think Modi may be more in the lion category. And I think him sort of forging a middle path and trying to move as an independent in the world, which has been traditional Indian policy."
Conservative commentator and author Ben Shapiro has warned that the United States risks pushing India closer to China if Donald Trump continues with tariff-heavy trade policies. He also stressed that attempts to sever New Delhi's long-standing ties with Moscow are misguided.
"The idea that we are going to break the relationship between Russia and India is foolish. Modi and Putin have been friendly for a very long time," Shapiro told journalist Megyn Kelly in a discussion on his new book Lions and Scavengers.
Shapiro argued that India's relationship with both Russia and China is shaped by history and realpolitik rather than American sanctions. "India during the entirety of the Cold War was not aligned but actually aligned pretty closely with the Soviet Union. And it took until the mid-2000s for the United States to start really warming up the relationship with India to the point where they’re now considered a military strategic partner as part of the so-called Quad. That'd be like the United States, Japan, Australia, and India," he said.
He pointed to oil trade as a central factor keeping India close to Moscow. "He (Modi) is getting enormous amounts of oil from Vladimir Putin. Something like 47% of all Russian oil exports go to the Chinese and 38% go to the Indians. And that means that since 2022, the Indians have probably saved something like 17 billion on their oil cost because of the amount of oil that they’ve been taking in from the Russians."
According to Shapiro, Trump's tariff war is worsening the situation. "I will say that the tariff war does have some unforeseen consequences. And I think one of those consequences is that instead of boxing China in with all these other countries, if you slap Japan with a tariff and you slap India with a tariff, you slap South Korea with a tariff and then you slap China with a lower tariff than India, then you could theoretically be making moves that push India in the direction of a realignment. And that has some significant impact," he warned.
He added that global markets are already showing stress. "You've seen that the dollar has been dropping as the global reserve currency. The spot price of gold today is highest. And so there are downstream effects to some of these decisions being made."
When asked if it is all about tariffs, Shapiro said, "I don't think it's all about the tariffs. I do think it is largely about the tariffs. We've offered a lot of carrots and not a lot of sticks. And not enough carrots to places like India. The truth is that the trade relationship that we have with India is not wildly important to the United States. They represent our 10th largest trading partner. They do have access to some rare earth minerals. And one of the goals theoretically should have been - if we were going to do cheap goods at all from other parts of the world - to realign that from China to India and make more of an ally of India, specifically because they’re geopolitically between Pakistan and China. By the way, we hold more military exercises with India than we do with NATO."
Shapiro criticised the Navarro line of trade policy, saying Trump should move in the opposite direction. "If you start to see them like actually realign with China, if you start to see them move into the Chinese camp, then that really does upend the geopolitical order. And so again, I'm not a Peter Navarro guy. And I think that Peter Navarro's trade policy, if you do the opposite of that, typically you’re going to do well."
Discussing the optics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi sharing the stage with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in China, Shapiro acknowledged concerns about an "anti-American coalition." "Turkey, Iran, and North Korea were there (at the summit). It was China. It was India, and it was Russia. And that sort of anti-American coalition that territorially now stretches all the way from China in the east to theoretically Turkey in the west, that is a very large land bridge. That is a serious geopolitical issue," he said.
On whether Modi, Putin and Xi fit the “lions” of his book title, Shapiro drew a distinction. “The idea of the lion in the book is somebody who is trying to build as opposed to tear down. So I would say no. Two of those three are attempting to tear down. I'm not sure about Modi. I think Modi may be more in the lion category. And I think him sort of forging a middle path and trying to move as an independent in the world, which has been traditional Indian policy."