Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, has reportedly ignored four phone calls from Donald Trump amid escalating tariff tensions.

The report came as Washington on Monday announced an additional 25 per cent tariff on India in retaliation for New Delhi’s increased buying of Russian oil, taking total tariffs on the country to as much as 50 per cent,

“Trump has tried four times in recent weeks to get Modi on the phone. But Modi refuses to take the call,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), a German magazine, claimed. The report did not name the sources. Both Washington and New Delhi have declined to confirm the report.



“Kitchen psychology is very popular in India these days,” the FAZ article begins. “It is said on the subcontinent that Narendra Modi suffers from a trauma trigger called Trump.”

On Aug 24, Nikkei Asia, a Japan-based news magazine, quoted Indian diplomatic experts as saying: “Trump recently attempted multiple times to call Modi in search of a compromise. But the Indian leader has consistently refused to take the calls, further heightening Trump’s frustration.”


Indian exporters are bracing for a sharp decline in US orders after trade talks collapsed and Washington confirmed steep new tariffs on India’s goods.

A 25 per cent tariff has already come into effect, while the remaining 25 per cent is set to be enforced from Aug 27, as confirmed in a Monday notice by the homeland security department.

Earlier this month, the US president described India and Russia’s economies as “dead” and accused India of not caring about those killed in the conflict in Ukraine.

“They’re fuelling the war machine, and if they’re going to do that, then I’m not happy,” Mr Trump told CNBC in the first week of August.

A planned visit by US trade negotiators to New Delhi from Aug 25 to Aug 29 was called off, further triggering a trade crisis between the countries.

However, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister, said on Saturday that trade negotiations with Washington are continuing, but there are lines that New Delhi needs to defend.