Top Stories; India urges BRICS partners to address trade deficits as China calls on bloc members to unite
Top Stories — Tuesday, September 9, 2025
What is trending in the USA today? Here is Breaking News:
- India urges BRICS partners to address trade deficits as China calls on bloc members to unite — CNBC
- France's Political Crisis — nyt News
- France's Government Has Collapsed. What Comes Next? — nyt News
India urges BRICS partners to address trade deficits as China calls on bloc members to unite
Source: CNBC • Published: 9/9/2025, 10:03:50 AM
India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Monday urged members of the BRICS bloc to address their trade imbalances with New Delhi, as they met against the backdrop of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs.
Speaking at the virtual summit, Jaishankar said that India's "biggest trade deficits are with BRICS partners." The bloc, which has Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as key members, has been charged by Trump of pursuing "anti-American policies."
Brazil along with India is among the nations hardest-hit by Trump's tariffs, with levies as steep as 50%.
Jaishankar was representing India in the absence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose attendance at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in China last week was seen as signaling warming ties with Beijing at a time when relations with the U.S. have been under strain.
India's tone at the BRICS meeting contrasted with that of host Brazil that charged the U.S. of "blackmail," while China too took veiled swipes at Washington's trade policies as President Xi Jinping warned against "Hegemonism, unilateralism, and protectionism."
"Trade wars and tariff wars waged by some country severely disrupt the world economy and undermine international trade rules," Xi said, urging the BRICS member nations to stick together in the face of higher tariffs elsewhere.
India sees the BRICS as mainly an economic initiative, while China and Russia view it more of a geopolitical grouping, said Chietigj Bajpaee, senior research fellow at Chatham House.
Chinese imports to India have been on a steady rise in recent years, taking New Delhi's trade deficit with Beijing to a record high of $99.21 billion in fiscal year ending March 2025. China has racked up a $77.7 billion trade surplus with India this year as of August, 16% higher compared to the level a year earlier, according to Chinese customs data released Monday.
"The BRICS itself can set an example by reviewing trade flows among its member states," Jaishankar said, adding that India had been pressing for "expeditious solutions" to address trade deficits.
Bilateral trade between New Delhi and Moscow also reached a record high of $68.7 billion in fiscal year 2025, with India's increased oil imports contributing to a $59 billion deficit.
The U.S. has imposed a hefty 50% tariff on India, significantly higher than the 30% levies on Chinese goods, leading to a souring of relations between New Delhi and Washington.
Trade talks between the two have stalled as Washington has sought to curb India's purchases of Russian oil, while accusing it of protectionist policies in sectors such as agriculture and dairy. New Delhi has said it was being unfairly targeted.
Trump earlier this week said India had offered to cut its tariffs on American imports to zero, while complaining that the proposal had come too late in the negotiation.
Even though experts have blamed Trump for upending more than two decades of improving ties with India, there have been some signs that the two countries could be moving toward addressing sticking points.
Speaking from the Oval office earlier this week, Trump said that India and the U.S. have a special relationship and "there is nothing to worry," while praising that Modi was a "great prime minister."
Modi responding to Trump's comment in a post on X, said that "deeply appreciate and fully reciprocate President Trump's sentiments and positive assessment of our ties."
"Modi and Trump's conciliatory statements reflect the fact that despite the bad blood in the bilateral relationship, the structural foundations of the India-US relationship remain robust," said Bajpaee.
He added that while India sees the U.S. as a key strategic, technology and defense partner, Washington sees India as a counterbalance to the rise of China.
France's Political Crisis
Source: nyt News • Published: 9/9/2025, 10:00:05 AM
France in turmoil
The government of Prime Minister François Bayrou collapsed yesterday after just nine months. With four prime ministers in the past 20 months, the fall of French governments, once unusual, has become close to mundane.
Bayrou lost a confidence vote that he had called in Parliament to confront France's ballooning debt. The far right party led by Marine Le Pen and a group of left and far-left parties, holding a clear majority between them, rejected Bayrou's ideas, including a freeze on welfare payments and the elimination of two national holidays. Le Pen suggested cutting spending on immigrants instead.
What comes next? Emmanuel Macron issued a statement saying he would accept the resignation of Bayrou today and name a new prime minister "in the next few days." Naming a new prime minister from Macron's group of centrist allies, however, could lead to more political turmoil. Street protests against austerity and Macron himself are scheduled for tomorrow.
Takeaway: "There's an adage that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result," Roger Cohen, our Paris bureau chief, said. "There's no reason to think why another centrist prime minister would not be equally paralyzed."
Context: France has become nearly ungovernable because the old alternation between power on the moderate left and right has been replaced by the growing dominance of political extremes. The country does not have a tradition of coalition building, as is the case in Italy or Germany.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Read the full story at nyt News.
France's Government Has Collapsed. What Comes Next?
Source: nyt News • Published: 9/9/2025, 9:31:04 AM
What will President Emmanuel Macron do now?
That question is back on everybody's lips in France this week after the government lost a confidence vote in the National Assembly, the country's lower house of Parliament, forcing the prime minister, François Bayrou, and his cabinet to resign.
Mr. Bayrou, a centrist ally of Mr. Macron, had unexpectedly called the vote last month. He hoped to force lawmakers' hands as he tried to push through cost-cutting measures meant to address France's ballooning debt. But his bid failed.
The collapse of the government now leaves Mr. Macron with an assortment of imperfect, even unpalatable, options. Each holds its own challenge.
The presidency is in many ways France's most powerful political office. But prime ministers and their cabinets, who answer to the National Assembly, are formally in charge of domestic policy, including the budget.
Here's what you need to know about what Mr. Macron could do:
The quickest solution, and the one Mr. Macron favors, is to appoint a new prime minister and form a new cabinet. His office said after Monday's vote that he would pick someone "in the next few days."
But the question will be whether a new government could fare any better than the two that have fallen since the president called snap parliamentary elections last year.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Read the full story at nyt News.
For complete details, visit the original sources linked above.
Comments
Post a Comment