As Washington puts pressure on New Delhi to stop its imports of Russian crude oil, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro claims that India’s purchases of Russian crude oil are funding Moscow’s conflict in Ukraine.
In an opinion piece published in the Financial Times on Monday, Navarro wrote that India serves as a “global clearinghouse for Russian oil” and that it converts crude oil into high-value exports while providing Moscow with the funds it needs.
He added that Putin’s war economy is “deeply corrosive of the world’s efforts to isolate him from the world’s oil supply”.
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.
US-Indian ties were strained by President Donald Trump’s decision to impose 50% tariffs on Indian goods at the beginning of this month.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a defiant speech on Friday to celebrate India’s Independence Day, promising to protect farmers in his nation from the Trump administration’s high tariffs.
“Modi will oppose any policy that threatens their interests like a wall.” When it comes to safeguarding our farmers’ interests, he declared, “India will never compromise.”
Russia-India relations
Russia is one of India’s closest allies in terms of defense, with the majority of its supplies coming from Moscow, including the S-400 missile defense system. In the midst of the Ukraine war, Modi and Putin met in Moscow, where India has continued to have friendly ties with Russia.
However, over the years, New Delhi and Washington have forged lasting ties, which has elevated their ties to a strategic level. Trump has been pushing to lower India’s $45 billion deficit, which the two countries have yearly bilateral trade of $128 billion.
India served as a buffer against rising China, as the US saw it, but recent actions by the Trump administration appear to have strained relations with China.
At the end of the month, Indian Prime Minister Modi will travel to China, and Wang Yi, the country’s foreign minister, will make a two-day trip to India on Monday for talks on the disputed border.
The White House adviser claimed that India is “cozying up” to China and Russia in an opinion piece published on Monday. India must start acting like one if it wants to be a US strategic partner, according to Navarro.
As New Delhi’s ties to China and Russia deepen, the adviser added that it was risky to transfer cutting-edge US military equipment to India.
The second senior Trump administration official to accuse India of funding Russia’s conflict in Ukraine is Navarro. In the first week of August, Stephen Miller, the White House’s deputy chief of staff, declared that New Delhi’s purchase of Russian oil was “unacceptable.”
One of Trump’s most powerful aides, Miller, stated in an interview with Fox News, “Trump very clearly stated that it is unacceptable for India to continue funding this war by purchasing oil from Russia.”
Unfairly targeted,
India’s foreign ministry claimed that the country is being unfairly targeted for purchasing Russian oil despite Russia’s continued purchases by the US and the EU.
Although New Delhi’s claim to be singled out is that the EU and the US trade significantly more with Russia than India, despite Russia’s claim that this volume has decreased significantly since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
According to the EU, its total trade with Russia was worth 67.5 billion euros ($77.9bn) in 2024, a fall from 257.5 billion euros ($297.4bn) in 2021.
According to the Finnish think tank Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, the bloc has also continued to import Russian gas, spending $105.6 billion on imports since the start of the war.
The US Trade Representative’s office estimates that the total US trade in 2024 was $5. 2 billion, which is a significant decrease from the US Trade Representative’s office’s estimate of $5. 36 billion in 2021.
Trump accuses New Delhi of preventing US goods from entering the country by imposing high tariffs, which India and the US have been negotiating for months over a free trade agreement.
