'Russia will achieve all…': Lavrov's fiery threat to West after EU sanctions, issues final warning
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Time of India
35 minutes ago
- Time of India
'10-day countdown...': Trump threatens tariffs on Russia over Ukraine stalemate
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday (July 29) that the United States would start imposing tariffs and other measures on Russia "10 days from today" if Moscow showed no progress toward ending its more than three-year-long war in Ukraine. Trump first announced on Monday (July 28) that he was shortening the initial 50-day deadline he set a month ago for action from Moscow, and mentioned a new deadline of 10 to 12 days. On Tuesday, he told reporters he had not heard a response from Russia. Speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump said he was not worried about the potential impact of Russian sanctions on the oil market or prices, vowing to boost domestic oil production to offset any impact. Show more Show less
Indian Express
35 minutes ago
- Indian Express
India's FTA focus: Trade in the time of disorder
The formal signing of the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) headlined Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the UK. Since leaving the EU, 'Global' Britain has been on a spree to conclude or join FTAs. After a period of FTA pause, India, too, is on an accelerated pursuit of trade agreements. Though neither is the other's major trading partner, the salience of CETA lies in the symbolism and substance, the future potential, the many tangible and intangible dimensions of this partnership, and the infusion of strength into a relationship that faces challenges not from customary colonial memories, but from contemporary challenges to India's security and integrity. CETA's significance also derives from its ambition. FTAs either cover areas that fall within the mandate of the WTO or go deeper in covering commitments and harmonisation on a range of national economic policy issues to facilitate stronger economic partnership among signatories. CETA embodies the latter. The two governments have hailed CETA as a landmark agreement because of the balance of openings and protections, coverage and scope and also because, from India's standpoint, it is the first comprehensive one with a major Western partner that defines the template for others, including with the EU. CETA is historic for another reason. It is an important milestone in India's — as in the world's — growing reliance on bilateralism and regionalism at a time when the multilateral trade regime is eroding as its architect, which is still the world's most powerful economy, turns its back on it. President Donald Trump has abandoned the foundational principle of the global trade regime. As in other domains, the US no longer finds the system it created useful or attractive. Trump has accelerated a longer-term trend in the US since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008 towards trade hesitancy, if not hostility, and protectionism, through the successive tenures of presidents Barack Obama, Trump and Joe Biden. There is a bipartisan consensus that the US will not surrender its sovereignty to the binding rule-making role of the WTO. The current sentiments will continue to shape the US political economy. For the US and the West broadly, the problem has deeper structural roots in the consequences of the recent wave of globalisation that began in the 1970s and peaked by the time of the GFC. The first wave of globalisation from 1870 to 1914 led to the concentration of prosperity and power in the industrialising West and America's rise as a major power. By contrast, the recent phase triggered Asia's rise, China's emergence as a major power and the West's relative decline with disruptive political consequences in the advanced countries. In particular, it has resulted in China's extraordinary accumulation of industrial and technological power and dominance in key industries and supply chains in a fundamentally different political and economic system, incongruous with a transparent trade regime. The concentration risk was laid bare by the Covid pandemic. Further, the sharpening geopolitical competition has manifested in trade and technology. The war in Ukraine deepened shifts and uncertainty. Together, these factors have put globalism and its scaffolding under extreme stress. Calls for reshoring and industrial sovereignty face limitations of lost capabilities, and deeply entrenched Global Value Chains (GVCs) that various estimates put at 50-70 per cent of global trade. Trade remains essential for all nations. But as nations seek to derisk, diversify and rebalance trade relations in a world in flux, they seek long-term commitment, trust, assurance and resilience through bilateral and regional agreements. The number of such agreements, although within the WTO framework, has risen rapidly in the past two decades, with an increase in momentum after the GFC and the Covid pandemic. Trump's strategy will accelerate the trend. For one, despite his impetuosity, the legislative uncertainty of his authority and questionable enforceability of the 'deals', countries are seeking exclusive and competitive bilateral agreements with the US. At the same time, hedging strategies, against both US unpredictability and China's dominance, will trigger new bilateral or regional agreements, as well as expansion, restructuring and interlocking of existing regional agreements: The Trans Pacific Partnership was resuscitated as the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) after the US's exit. India's preferred path is more manageable bilateral agreements with countries or groupings rather than participation in regional agreements. India signed a spate of agreements during the UPA era, mostly in Asia. However, not all of them were with competitors like ASEAN, but also with complementary economies like Japan and Korea. That these agreements had disappointing outcomes was as much due to their terms as to our lack of competitiveness. Their lessons are shaping the choice of partners and the terms of the agreements, and alignment with domestic policies and incentives. Nonetheless, global trends point to an enhanced need for comprehensive FTAs. With the atrophying of the predictable, non-discriminatory global trade regime, FTAs will become determinants of competitiveness. These have become essential for creating opportunities for our services sector and mobility of our professionals, and for access to critical minerals, technology, innovation and energy. Above all, there is a strong correlation between high-quality FTAs and the GVCs. Assured integration into GVCs will serve our twin objectives of rapid industrialisation and export growth at scale. It is even more critical now as various studies estimate the share of potential bottleneck products in global trade to have doubled since 2000 to around 20 per cent, with almost 66 per cent of the share of the global export value in these products now coming from East Asia-Pacific. This also means that, besides the new FTA with Australia, we must revisit the CEPA/CECA with Japan, Korea and Singapore, not just to improve their terms but also for assured access to critical inputs to fully exploit the potential of FTAs with Western partners. This will also require finding a modus vivendi with China. As India pursues its national transformation at a time of global disorder, shaping our external economic engagement strategically is both a geopolitical necessity and an economic imperative. The writer is a retired ambassador
Time of India
36 minutes ago
- Time of India
India cannot ‘switch off its economy', says envoy to UK on Russian oil imports
India's high commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami has dismissed the western criticism of New Delhi's oil imports from Russia and said a country can't "switch off its economy". Doraiswami said many of India's European partners are also continuing to buy rare earth and other energy products from the same countries that they're "refusing to let us buy from". He was speaking to British radio station, Times Radio, last week after the PM's visit to London. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category CXO Product Management Healthcare Management Data Science Technology Data Analytics Degree Artificial Intelligence Digital Marketing Finance healthcare Operations Management Data Science others PGDM Public Policy Design Thinking Cybersecurity Others MBA Project Management Leadership MCA Skills you'll gain: Technology Strategy & Innovation Emerging Technologies & Digital Transformation Leadership in Technology Management Cybersecurity & Risk Management Duration: 24 Weeks Indian School of Business ISB Chief Technology Officer Starts on Jun 28, 2024 Get Details Skills you'll gain: Digital Strategy Development Expertise Emerging Technologies & Digital Trends Data-driven Decision Making Leadership in the Digital Age Duration: 40 Weeks Indian School of Business ISB Chief Digital Officer Starts on Jun 30, 2024 Get Details Skills you'll gain: Operations Strategy for Business Excellence Organizational Transformation Corporate Communication & Crisis Management Capstone Project Presentation Duration: 11 Months IIM Lucknow Chief Operations Officer Programme Starts on Jun 30, 2024 Get Details Skills you'll gain: Customer-Centricity & Brand Strategy Product Marketing, Distribution, & Analytics Digital Strategies & Innovation Skills Leadership Insights & AI Integration Expertise Duration: 10 Months IIM Kozhikode IIMK Chief Marketing and Growth Officer Starts on Apr 7, 2024 Get Details "Don't you think that that seems a little odd?" Doraiswami said. When asked about India's "closeness" with Russia and President Vladimir Putin, he said New Delhi's relationship is based on a number of metrics. "One of these is our long-standing security relationship that goes back to an era in which some of our western partners would not sell us weapons but would sell them to countries in our neighbourhood that use them only to attack us," the high commissioner said in an indirect reference to US-Pakistan military ties from the Cold War era. He said India has an "energy relationship" with Russia, which is the result of "everybody else buying energy from sources that we used to buy from earlier". "So we've been displaced out of the energy market largely, and the costs have gone up. We are the third-largest consumer of energy in the world. We import over 80% of our product. What would you have us do? Switch off our economy," Doraiswami said. "We also see around us relationships that other countries maintain for their own convenience with countries that are a source of difficulty for us. Do we ask you to come up with a little test of loyalty?" he said. India has called EU sanctions on Rosneft refinery in India as unilateral to which it does not subscribe. On the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly said that "this isn't an era of war". "He's made that point repeatedly, including with the president of Russia and with the president of Ukraine," he said. "We are very keen for this terrible conflict to stop, as we are keen for conflicts across the world to stop," Doraiswami added. Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
