Key Points

The Eastern Command of the Indian Army shared a throwback newspaper clipping from 1971 archives, and shared it on its social media handle and wrote, “This Day That Year" Build Up of War – 05 Aug 1971".

"US Arms worth $2billion shipped to Pakistan since 1954", the newspaper heading reads, with details of US shipments to Pakistan elaborately explained in the news report.

The report highlights how the United States remained one of the key suppliers of arms to Pakistan till 1971, the year when war broke out between India and Pakistan, resulting in the formation of Bangladesh.

Indian Army’s digging out old news report on US arms supply to Pakistan assumes importance in light of the American President, Donald Trump’s recent tirade at India and also his threats of imposing ‘penalty’, besides the recently unveiled 25 per cent tariff.

Trump recently threatened to impose additional tariffs on Indian goods, objecting to the latter’s purchase of subsidised oil from Russia. This prompted a strong counter from India as well as the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), which pointed to 'unfair' treatment and targeting by the US.

“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 posted on Truth Social.

Subsequently, India hit back at the United States, reminding it that when it began importing from Russia after the Ukraine conflict, the former ‘actively encouraged such imports’.

In a riposte to Trump’s threats to India over the purchase of Russian oil, the MEA said that the US objections were “unjustified and unreasonable".

The MEA also rebuked the European Union for singling out Indian refiners over their trade with Russia.

It also called out the double standards of the US as well as the European Union and underscored the fact that America continues to import uranium hexafluoride from Russia for its nuclear installations.

- IANS