Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has warned that the United States risks undermining one of its most important strategic partnerships by imposing punitive tariffs on India, calling for Washington and New Delhi to stand “shoulder to shoulder” against China’s growing global dominance.
Writing on his Substack blog, Abbott described India as “the counterweight to the ascendant communist superpower” and argued that as a democracy that has “well and truly assimilated the best of its heritage from Britain,” India was always a natural fit with the West rather than with the old Soviet bloc.
Abbott said that while there was “much to cheer” in the second Trump administration’s foreign policy — including strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and the freeing of Israeli hostages — the decision to impose penalty tariffs on India for buying Russian oil and gas was “puzzling” and strategically misguided.
“First, this action seems to put the goal of constraining Russia over the more important goal of containing China,” he wrote.
“Second, it has put at risk two decades of careful cultivation of India as the essential democratic counterweight to an ascendant communist superpower.”
The former prime minister said the tariffs, combined with the lack of similar penalties on Beijing, had caused “dismay and anger” in New Delhi and threatened to derail the close ties built during Donald Trump’s first term, symbolised by the high-profile Howdy Modi rallies.
Abbott warned that the fallout from the tariffs could jeopardise upcoming diplomatic engagements, including the planned Quad leaders’ meeting in Delhi, and weaken the Indo-Pacific coalition of democracies working to preserve a rules-based order amid China’s growing assertiveness.
He emphasised that India’s participation in the BRICS summit in Shanghai should not be read as a geopolitical shift toward Beijing and Moscow, describing it instead as “an instant riposte to Trump” rather than a signal of deeper alignment.
“India will no more be a junior partner to China than it will be a junior partner to America,” Abbott wrote.
“America needs India because only India can realistically substitute for China in the West’s critical supply chains. India needs America because without American strength, China’s hegemonic ambitions are likely to be realised with dire consequences for all China’s neighbours.”
Concluding his blog, Abbott reiterated that enduring democratic values and mutual interests — not the transient impulses of political leaders — form the bedrock of the India-US relationship.
“The human factor in history should never be underestimatedbut individual leaders eventually move on,” he wrote.
“More influential in the long run are the permanent interests and enduring values bringing India and America together.”
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