the US traded goods, external<\/a> worth an estimated $3.5bn (\u00a32.6bn) with Russia, despite tough sanctions and tariffs. <\/p>\n“Like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security,” the foreign ministry statement said.<\/p>\n
“The targeting of India is unjustified and unreasonable,” it added.<\/p>\n
Last week, Trump had described India as a “friend” but said its tariffs on US products “are far too high” and he warned of an unspecified “penalty” over its trade with Russia.<\/p>\n
His latest Truth Social post again struck a critical tone.<\/p>\n
“India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
“Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA,” he added.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not ordered India’s oil refineries to stop buying Russian oil, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the situation.<\/p>\n
Ajay Srivastava, a former Indian trade official and head of the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), a Delhi-based think tank, said Trump’s claims about India’s oil trade with Russia are misleading for several reasons. <\/p>\n
He told the BBC that the trade has been transparent and broadly understood by the US. <\/p>\n
Mr Srivastava said India ramped up purchases of oil to help stabilise global markets after Western sanctions disrupted supplies – helping to stop a global oil price shock. <\/p>\n
He also said that India’s oil refineries – both public and private – decide where to buy crude oil based on factors like price, supply security, and export rules. They operate independently of the government and do not need its approval to buy from Russia or other countries. <\/p>\n
Though relations between the US and Russia warmed after Trump returned to the White house in January, the US president has more recently toughened his rhetoric against the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
Trump has questioned whether Putin is truly committed to peace with Ukraine. In Monday’s Truth Social post he used stern language, describing the Russian military as the “Russian War Machine”. <\/p>\n
Russia’s leader has repeatedly said he is ready for peace but only if Kyiv meets certain conditions, such as recognising Ukrainian territories that Russia has occupied. <\/p>\n
Trump has threatened Moscow with severe tariffs targeting its oil and other exports if a ceasefire with Ukraine is not agreed by 8 August.<\/p>\n
US envoy Steve Witkoff is due to visit Russia later this week, where he is expected to meet Putin.<\/p>\n
Additional reporting by Soutik Biswas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a statement, a spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry, Randhir Jaiswal, said the US had encouraged India to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-319418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114975371622338088","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}