The Indian Army on Tuesday took a dig at the United States by sharing an old newspaper clip from 1971 showing how the country has supported Pakistan for decades. The post comes a day after President Donald Trump threatened India over its purchase of Russian oil, saying he will substantially raise tariffs on goods from India.
The clip, shared by the Eastern Command of the Indian Army, dated back to August 5, 1971. It showed how the US was supplying arms to Pakistan for decades in the buildup for the 1971 war. “This day, that year build up of war – August 5, 1971,” the army captioned the post.
#IndianArmy#EasternCommand#VijayVarsh #LiberationOfBangladesh #MediaHighlights
“This Day That Year” Build Up of War – 05 Aug 1971 #KnowFacts.
“πΌ.πΊ π¨πΉπ΄πΊ πΎπΆπΉπ»π― $2 π©π°π³π³π°πΆπ΅ πΊπ―π°π·π·π¬π« π»πΆ π·π¨π²π°πΊπ»π¨π΅ πΊπ°π΅πͺπ¬ ’54”@adgpi@SpokespersonMoDβ¦ pic.twitter.com/wO9jiLlLQf
β EasternCommand_IA (@easterncomd) August 5, 2025
The newspaper clip mentioned the then Defence Production Minister VC Shukla telling the Rajya Sabha about how the NATO powers and the Soviet Union had been contacted over the arms supply to Pakistan in the backdrop of Islamabad’s armed aggression in Bangladesh. While the Soviet Union and the French government had denied supplying arms to Pakistan, the US continued its support, the report mentioned.
It also said that both the US and China sold arms to Pakistan at “throwaway prices” – indicating that Pakistan fought the 1971 war with India with weapons provided by the two countries.
The US, even now, has gone easy on Pakistan with its tariffs.
During his latest bid to reshape the global trade in favour of US businesses, Trump signed a new executive order slapping higher tariffs on dozens of countries – hours before the trade deal deadline on August 1. However, he slashed the tariffs on Pakistan, bringing it down to 19 per cent from the previous 29 per cent.
Trump threatens India, New Delhi responds
Trump has been threatening India with increasing reciprocal tariffs over its purchase of Russian oil – even as the US is continuing its trade with Russia. On Monday, the Republican leader yet again issued the threat to India, saying he will substantially raise tariffs on goods from India – higher than the already raised 25 per cent tariffs.
“India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits. They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine. Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
India, however, hit back at Trump, reminding him that when it began importing from Russia after the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict, the US “actively encouraged such imports”. The foreign ministry also countered the stance of the European Union for singling out Indian refiners over their exports of crude.
According to the foreign ministry, while India’s imports are “a necessity compelled by the global market situation”, the nations criticising it are themselves “indulging in trade with Russia” even when “such trade is not even a vital compulsion”.
It also listed out the trade pact the nations have with Russia.
“The European Union in 2024 had a bilateral trade of Euro 67.5 billion in goods with Russia. In addition, it had trade in services estimated at Euro 17.2 billion in 2023. This is significantly more than India’s total trade with Russia that year or subsequently. European imports of LNG in 2024, in fact, reached a record 16.5mn tonnes, surpassing the last record of 15.21mn tonnes in 2022. Europe-Russia trade includes not just energy, but also fertilisers, mining products, chemicals, iron and steel and machinery and transport equipment,” an official statement by the ministry read.
