Washington: A day after announcing 25% tariffs on India in addition to an unspecified ‘penalty’ tariff for India purchasing Russian energy and arms, US President Donald Trump has dubbed both the nations as ‘dead economies’.

Launching a fresh attack on social platform Truth Social, Trump wrote “I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care.” “We have done very little business with India, their tariffs are too high, among the highest in the world,” he added. India and the US traded goods worth more than $129bn in 2024, and the US is India’s largest trading partner.

The two countries have also built a strategic relationship on defence, technology, and other areas, based in large part on a shared desire to contain China.

But New Delhi is also the second-largest buyer of Russian oil by value, after China, and Moscow remains its main source of arms, though Indian governments, including that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have sought to diversify its weapons procurement in recent years, including from France, the US and Israel.

India’s largest single export to the US is mobile phones, thanks in large part to Apple’s recent push to relocate production of US-bound iPhones from China. Electronics including smartphones, as well as pharmaceuticals, were exempt from Trump’s original “reciprocal tariff” threat.

The US president’s comments on India and its relationship with Russia will further inflame bilateral tensions at a time when many Indians are angry over Trump’s remarks about Pakistan, following a brief military conflict between the south Asian adversaries in May.

The stand-off leaves India as a relative outlier after the EU, Japan, South Korea and others have bowed to Washington’s tariff pressure and agreed trade deals. Modi’s government on Wednesday said it would “take all steps necessary to secure our national interest”.