New Delhi [India], September 20 : New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy remained optimistic that India-US will find a common ground over the 50 per cent imposed on New Delhi by Washington, including an additional penalty of 25 per cent for purchasing discounted crude oil from Russia.
Phil Murphy, who is on a visit to India, highlighted the importance of India for New Jersey. However, he agreed that Russia needs to be "squeezed" to bring an end to the Ukraine war.
"The sub-national relationship between New Jersey and India is so important. It's easy to be here when times are good. It's a lot harder to be here when times are a little choppy. By the way, I'm not a tariff guy. I accept Russia is an aggressor nation, and they need to be squeezed, period... I'm an optimist that we'll find some kind of common ground," Phil Murphy.
The Democrat Governor advised that the US should pressurise Russia without "breaking down" the relationship with India, which he referred to as "one of the most important relationships in the world."
"I think there was a lot of pushback. I'm not sure it was just by Democrats. This Democrat is in Delhi right now, and that's not by accident... Russia deserves what's coming at them. But there's gotta be a way where you could do it without breaking down one of the most important relationships in the world for us... I'm not sure the pushback was along partisan lines, but I do think we're in a cooler heads or prevailing mode," Phil Murphy said.
Phil Murphy also spoke about the stringent screening measures taken by the Trump administration before allocating student visas. He noted over 2,000 Indian students awaiting their visas.
"We also need to find a more common ground as it relates to visas, particularly student visas... There are over 2,000 Indian students awaiting their visas. So that's another challenge that we have to work through. I believe we will. That won't be overnight, is my guess," he said.
Murphy mentioned that when a new administration comes in, they take measures to "overcorrect" things and believe that the administration will revert to their decisions.
"When new regimes come in, they often over-correct. They go to an extreme early on, and then they revert to the mean over time. I pray and believe that that will happen here... We have to get the student visa process more ironed out," he said.