'Not just China, India must now de-risk from US too': Sushant Sareen after Senate clears 100% tariff bill

India needs to start de-risking from the United States just as it has sought to de-risk from China, foreign affairs expert Sushant Sareen said after the US Senate passed a bill that allows President Donald Trump to impose 100% tariffs on goods from countries buying Russian oil and gas.

"I think India needs to get over that sense that this is a temporary phenomenon. This is signalling a much more permanent kind of a breach," Sareen said while speaking to news agency ANI.

The US Senate on Thursday voted 86-11 to approve the bipartisan Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. The bill allows Trump to impose 100% tariffs on goods from countries that are among the top five importers of Russian oil and gas.

China, India, Azerbaijan, Hungary and Slovakia are currently the top five importers of Russian energy.

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‘HOSTILE POWER’

Sareen, Senior Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, said the move should be viewed as a sign of a longer-term shift in US policy towards India.

"That does not mean that the economic relationship is totally gone. But if you are going to start imposing a 100% tariff, then the economic relationship does not exist anymore," he said.

"The question is, what does India do about it? I think just as India has thought about de-risking itself from China, I think India now needs to start moving towards de-risking from the United States as well."

He said the US under Trump, and possibly even after him, could remain hostile towards India.

"Because very clearly, the US under Trump, and maybe even after Trump, will remain a hostile power," Sareen said.

He referred to comments by a US deputy secretary of state who, according to Sareen, came to India and said: "We are not going to let India rise, and we won't make the same mistake we made with China."

Sareen added that the US could not actually stop India's rise and that the claim about China's rise was also misplaced. But, he said, "US believes that."

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‘WILL THEY DO THE SAME TO CHINA?’

Sareen said the key question was whether Washington would impose the same tariff on China.

"I haven’t seen the text of the bill. But generally, what we have seen is that these kinds of bills have opt-out clauses, where the president can certify that it is not going to implement this particular law simply because it’s not in the American national interest," he said. "Now, they would certainly have that opt-out clause."

The foreign affairs expert said the measure was not only about India and China, as other countries were also covered.

"The question now is, it’s not just about India and China. There are three or four other countries. Will the Americans impose the same law on China of a 100% tariff? And chances are that they will not because the Chinese will retaliate," he said.

"We have seen Trump impose tariffs on us, but not on China."

RUSSIA SANCTIONS BILL

The Senate bill seeks to punish Russia and countries that buy its petroleum products, arguing that such trade helps fund the war in Ukraine.

The bill was renamed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who championed the legislation, died on July 11.

Sareen said the latest move was part of a broader pattern. "The US has been taking these kinds of actions. Donald Trump had imposed a 25% tariff on India simply because we were buying Russian oil," he said.

The bill would also extend until 2031 the expiration date of the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996, which penalises companies that invest in Iran's energy sector.

Sareen said India should consider responding with similar measures of its own. "Maybe India should consider passing a law that any country trading with Pakistan, we will impose a 100 per cent tariff and have opt-out clauses. If the US can have these kinds of laws on Russia, we can have such laws on Pakistan," he said.