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Comment by nailer | Hacker News Reader

Vietnam is one of the first countries to get a trade deal. India will get one when they decide to stop funding the Russian war machine.

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Considering that US is now funding the Pakistani war machine, India knows which side to pick.

Kashmir and Ukraine are very different situations.

Humor me -- different how?

India should ignore US support of a nation that sends terrorists to target their civilans... but should proactively care about a war happening thousands of miles from them?

That too, to the extent that the entire country shifts to a much more expensive source of fuel, burning bridges with their longtime ally... I don't really see why they should do that.

Edit: Rephrased my point to be argumentative instead of accusatory

> different how?

Constantly disputed since the partition of India.

> India should ignore US support of a nation that sends terrorists to target their civilans... but should proactively care about a war happening thousands of miles from them?

Straw man. India should care about both. Get the US to pressure Pakistan and ensure the US knows the expense of not buying Russian oil and that is covered by tariffs.

I still think India is better off choosing to make iPhones than buying Russian oil.

> I still think India is better off choosing to make iPhones than buying Russian oil.

Let the US firs un-sanction Venezuala and Iran first - major oil producing nations first. India is not going to starve its people to feed Trump's ego.

Your longterm ally supports the pakistans off other harrassed democracies and is actively taking territory. Its allied to india simply on divide and Conquer algorithmic terms. Then again the us is decaying down to this and its exterior policies were defined by whatever piggy ran down the headlines at home.

Really. India looks like a standard harassed by imperialist, genocidal islam scenario to me? Sudan, Nigeria , israel, Indonesia, Pakistan, syria, Bangladesh , the pattern is always the same. Its just invisible to western eyes, because of the built in biases.

What US military aid is going to Pakistan at this point? This info is a decade out of date. Pakistan is incredibly tight with China now.

Kindly educate yourself on the latest developments. US President Donald Trump approved ~$450 million for Pakistan to sustain its F-16 fighter jets after Pakistan's Army Chief cozied up. US-Pakistan strategic military ties have also now re-opened and further deals are on the table.

US wants airbase capability in Pakistan to bomb Iran - at-least that is what American military analysts are saying. Another compelling reason is exploitable rare earths and oil in Balochistan.

Do note that China is not sanctimoniously ordering India to stop buying oil from Russia, Iran and Venezuela.

> Vietnam is one of the first countries to get a trade deal.

Mexico and Canada also had trade deals, which went from Trump calling it "the largest, most significant, modern, and balanced trade agreement in history":

* https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/pr...

To Trump asking "Who would ever sign a thing like this?":

* https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-accidentally-insults...

To the malignant narcissist, the past, present and future are more or less the same. All grievances in the past are as bad as all the grievances they have in the present or can imagine in the future.

No deal with Trump is ever closed because the past isn't really the past.

This is now how we must view the USA, which is -- at a foreign and trade policy level at the very least -- indivisible from his mindset.

Oh agreed Trump has no consistent narrative. However the deals have generally been good for the US.

Which benefits it's allies how ? Like in the short term maybe good for the US, in the long term, people go elsewhere for trade, arms, etc.

> However the deals have generally been good for the US.

Given that some (most? all?) of the deals involve US import tariffs, which raise prices/taxes on US consumers, can you illustrate the ways in which they've been generally good? (Especially compared to what the US was doing in December 2024, pre-Trump.)

They already made it pretty clear that if America forces them to choose, they pick Russia.

It's really wild...a billion people in that country too, not a smart move.

Calling Trump's bluff is rarely an unwise move.

China was similarly unmoved by the threats America made.

Europe was moved and they got an absolutely horrible trade deal.

Meh, they made empty promises that dont require them to change pretty much anything.

China simply imports less from the US - about a fifth of what it imports - so yes the US has the upper hand here.

The US exports very little to China, most of which is easily substitutable (e.g. soybeans, corn, oil) and imports a lot, most of which isnt substitutable (e.g. electronics).

The substituability story was different ~5-10 years ago and a lot of Americans havent noticed yet that China is now just as good at building wide body airplanes and chips.

No prizes for guessing who has the upper hand in negotiations.

This is the problem in my opinion, if you've grown up believing only the US can do amazing things, then maybe you need a firmware update because that's no longer the world we live in.

It is the absolutely correct move. Indian-Russian relations have always been stable while US relations are always topsy-turvy depending on the administration in power. The US has now also re-kindled its love affair with Pakistan with resumption of military supplies. Looks like Trump forgot about 9/11 and that Osama Bin Laden's compound was just 1km away from the Pakistan Military Academy.

Please note that Ukraine-India relations were never that great due to Kashmir. Ukraine voted against India at UNSC several times pushing for UN intervention and support for Indian sanctions. (If you support referendum for Kashmir, why object to Donetsk referendum?)

Funny thing is that processed oil products (jet fuel/diesel) are in the tariff exempt list. Yes, US purchased jet fuel (reprocessed Russian oil) from India in 2025.

That's right, he's the president of peace.

Such a well thought out response.

So India should ignore how US has been funding a terrorist nation on their border, and hate Putin for a war that is half-the-planet away?

Sorry, but the world does not revolve around USA :)

Because the US has treated its allies well over the last few years?

I can understand why some are looking elsewhere.

Considering USA appears to basically change sides to Putin, nah, USA does not mind Russian war machines. USA president admires them.

Also, those trade deals are not worth much.

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