As the Trump administration presses New Delhi to stop importing Russian energy, a top US official has claimed that India is funding Russia’s conflict in Ukraine by purchasing oil from Moscow.
In an interview with Fox News, Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s most powerful aides, said, “Trump very clearly stated that it is unacceptable for India to continue funding this war by purchasing oil from Russia.”
In response to Western sanctions, India is the second-largest consumer of Russian oil, behind China, and more than 30% of its fuel comes from Moscow. This revenue supports the Kremlin. Prior to the start of the 2022 Ukrainian war, New Delhi only imported 1% of its oil from Russia.
The Trump administration’s strongest criticism of Miller came after the US imposed a 25% tariff on Indian products on Friday as a result of its purchase of Russian military equipment and energy. If India continued to purchase arms and oil from Russia, the Trump administration also threatened additional sanctions.
“People will be shocked to learn that China and India are essentially tied to one another when it comes to buying Russian oil.” That is an astounding fact,” Miller added.
Trump’s relationship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which the US aide described as “tremendous,” was tempered by the US aide.
Trump also emphasized the “friendship” with India the week after enforcing the tariffs on Asia’s second-largest economy.
India was “our friend,” but it had always purchased the majority of its military equipment from Russia. At the same time, China and Russia are now the biggest energy buyers. On July 30th, Trump made a post on his Truth Social platform.
What India does with Russia doesn’t matter to me. For the time being, they can combine their exhausted economies.
Trump has threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on US imports from Russian oil unless Moscow negotiates a significant peace agreement with Ukraine. India’s inclusion in the BRICS, which Russia and China were the founding members, has also drawn criticism from the US president.
Given that the Trump administration is negotiating with Russia, some analysts believe that the administration’s stance is intended to press Russia, while others see it as a means of negotiating terms with Washington. Trump wants to lower the $45 billion US trade deficit with India.
Time-tested ties are used.
Despite US threats, Indian government sources on Saturday told the Reuters news agency that New Delhi would continue to purchase oil from Moscow.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs argued that its relationship with Russia should not be seen through the lens of a third nation. It called it “steady and time-tested.” Moscow has ties to New Delhi that date back to the Soviet era.
India receives the most oil and military supplies from Russia. Russia continues to be the largest supplier of weapons and systems to the Indian Armed Forces, according to a report released in March from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
In an effort to balance its ties between Russia and the West, Prime Minister Modi made a trip to Moscow last year to meet with Vladimir Putin. Since then, he has met Putin at numerous international forums.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, India has traditionally purchased most of its crude oil from the Middle East, but this has changed since then because it has purchased the oil at discounted prices after the West has punished Russia.
In January 2022, New Delhi purchased 68 000 barrels of crude oil from Russia. Oil imports increased by 1.12 million barrels per day in June of the same year. Since then, imports have fluctuated, reaching a peak of 2.15 million per day in May 2023.
According to the Press Trust of India, supplies reached a record high of nearly 40% of India’s imports at one point, making Moscow the main crude supplier to New Delhi, citing data from Kpler, a data analytics company.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply