The US is ramping up pressure on India, for importing Russian crude oil. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said that additional tariffs were coming soon. And the main target of Trump’s ire seems to be India.
On Monday, Trump had put up a post on Truth Social, accusing India of fuelling the Russian war machine. But India hit back that very day with an official statement. It said, “the very nations criticising India are themselves indulging in trade with Russia.” Then, India listed out what Western nations were buying from Moscow.
In 2024, the European Union had trade worth 67.5 billion Euros with Russia. That comes to about 78 billion US dollars in trade. India-Russia bilateral trade in the financial year 2024-25 was worth $68.7 billion. The EU imported about $26 billion worth of mineral fuel from Russia in 2024. India’s imports of fuel during that year were much higher, at about $59 billion. Both values are significant, so both the EU and India can be accused of funding Russia’s war machine by purchasing fuel. India maintains that Russian fuel imports are a “vital national compulsion” but says that isn’t the case for other nations.
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In December 2022, the Group of Seven (G7) countries put a price cap on Russian crude oil. Importing the oil was not made illegal, but it had to be bought at under $60 per barrel. India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, says that India was actually encouraged to buy Russian oil. Including by the US. As long as the oil was bought within the price cap. If India and other nations would have stopped buying Russian oil altogether, then the Russian supplies would have effectively been frozen out of the market. This would have led to a supply shock, which could have caused oil prices to surge. So, India says that by purchasing Russian oil, it actually did the global economy a big favour.
But despite America’s tacit nod in the past, Trump now wants to punish India for its Russian imports. And this is despite the US importing goods from Russia too, which India pointed out. India says that the US imports nuclear fuel, rare earth minerals, fertilisers and chemicals from Russia. Data from the US Census Bureau shows that the country imported over $3 billion worth of goods from Russia in 2024. And it has imported about $2.5 billion worth already this year. Trump was asked about the data that India highlighted, and he said he "didn’t know anything about it.”
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Trump is unaware of his own country sending billions to Russia. And he seems to be ignoring Western allies who do the same. But India is in his crosshairs, despite years of good relations. It begs the question, is this really about Ukraine? Or is this a pressure tactic to coerce India into signing a bad trade deal with the US? We’ll find out in the days to come.