tape its not clear how many manufacturers will make the jump from chinasadanand dhume a senior fellow at the american enterprise institute said india faced several challenges in becoming a hub for international manufacturing including government reforms that had not yet appreciably made india a more attractive destination for companies and compared with china indias domestic consumer market is smaller and therefore less attractive for companies that manufacture thereindia emerged as a significant obstacle when members of the world trade organization tried to reach a suite of agreements at a meeting this year it has also declined to join negotiations over the trade pillar of the indopacific economic framework for prosperity an asiapacific economic pact proposed by the biden administrationin the past few months indias long economic relationship with russia has become increasingly problematic for the united states india is the worlds largest buyer of russian munitions a relationship that is difficult to sever particularly given indias tensions with neighboring china and pakistan india has refused to condemn the russian invasion of ukraine and since the war began in february it has become a major buyer of russian oil which it is able to purchase on international markets at a discountindias imports from russia have risen 430 since the war in ukraine began as tankers of russian crude oil flock to indian ports india which imports a significant amount of energy and is the worlds secondmost populous country has said it is merely focused on buying oil at the lowest priceeswar prasad a trade policy professor at cornell university who speaks to american and indian officials said that although india wanted to forge a stronger economic relationship with the united states it was unlikely to distance itself from russiaindia has very deepseated economic interests in maintaining a reliable and relatively cheap supply of oil from russia said prasad a former official with the international monetary fundthe us embrace of india comes as the united states and its european allies are racing to complete the terms of a plan to cap the price of russian oil the initiative must be in place by dec 5 when a european embargo and maritime insurance ban goes into effect potentially disrupting the flow of russian oil around the worldthe price cap would essentially create an exception to western sanctions allowing russian oil to be sold and shipped as long as it remained below a certain price a level that has yet to be determinedindia has been circumspect about the proposal but treasury department officials say the united states is not trying to push it to formally join its coalition instead they are hopeful that india will use the price cap as leverage to negotiate lower prices with russia depriving putin of revenue but keeping the nations oil flowing