White House trade advisor Peter Navarro.
Credit: Reuters Photo
New York/Washington: The BRICS alliance will not last since the member nations “all hate each other”, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has said, likening their trade practices to "vampires" exploiting the United States.
BRICS, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, with Indonesia joining in 2025.
“I don't see how the BRICS alliance stays together since historically they all hate each other and kill each other,” Navarro said in an interview with the ‘Real America’s Voice’ show on Monday.
In a diatribe targeting the BRICS nations, he said the “bottom line” is that none of the countries in the grouping can "survive if they don't sell to the United States. And when they sell to the United States, their exports, they're like vampires sucking our blood dry with their unfair trade practices”.
Navarro, who has been ranting against India over its import of Russian oil and high tariffs, said the country has been at war with China for decades.
In a sarcastic remark, he said, “And I just remembered, yeah, it was China that gave Pakistan a nuclear bomb. You got ships flying around the Indian Ocean now with Chinese flags. (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi, see how you kind of work that out.” He also claimed that Russia is in “bed with China”.
Navarro claimed Beijing has its sights on the Russian port of Vladivostok and is already “colonising Siberia, which is the biggest land mass of the Russian semi-empire” through "massive illegal immigration".
"So good luck with that, Putin," he said.
On Brazil, Navarro said the country’s economy is “going down the tubes” because of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s “socialist policies” while “they keep the real leader of that country in a cell”, a reference to former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently under house arrest and is on trial for allegedly plotting a coup following his loss in the 2022 presidential election.
In July, President Donald Trump criticised Brazilian officials for their "persecution" of Bolsonaro and said the Brazilian government has "unjustly charged Bolsonaro with multiple crimes". For this, he imposed an additional 40 per cent levy on Brazil.
Earlier, in a post on X, Navarro said India has the largest population in the world and “all it can do is manage a few hundred thousand X propagandists to jerk around a poll? Too funny. America: look at how foreign interests use our social media to advance their agenda.” In the interview, Navarro warned that India “must come around” at some point on trade negotiations with the US, and if it doesn't, New Delhi is laying down with Russia and China and that "won't end well" for India.
He said the Indian government has taken offence to his describing India as the "Maharajah" of tariffs.
“But it's absolutely true. They have the highest tariffs in any major country in the world against the United States. We got to deal with that,” Navarro said.
He claimed India never bought oil from Moscow before Russia invaded Ukraine, “except for like little tiny drops of it. And then they go into this mode of profiteering with Russian refiners coming on to Indian soil and profiteering,” and American taxpayers end up having to send more money for the conflict.
Listing the “great" trade deals that the US has inked with the European Union, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia, Navarro said "all these countries are working very closely with us” because they realise that they've been taking too much advantage of the US and also because they need American markets.
On additional sanctions on China, which is the largest purchaser of Russian oil, Navarro said Washington is walking a “fine line” and again urged India to stop importing Russian oil.
"I think that what's got to happen is India's got to stop buying Russian oil. That's going to be good for the whole peace; the road to peace partly runs through New Delhi. Europe certainly has to stop buying Russian oil... with China, we got over 50% tariffs on them, and we're doing the best we can in terms of negotiating to protect the American people without hurting the American people.
“And that's the art of diplomacy that we've got going on. And you just got to trust in Trump,” he said.