India, Russia hit back after U.S. accuses Modi government of fuelling Russia's war in Ukraine

CBC

2 days ago

Russia accused the United States on Tuesday of exerting illegal trade pressure on India after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened again to raise tariffs on India over its purchases of Russian oil.
"We hear many statements that are in fact threats, attempts to force countries to cut trade relations with Russia. We do not consider such statements to be legal," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"We believe that sovereign countries should have and do have the right to choose their own trading partners, partners for trade and economic co-operation, and to choose for themselves the forms of trade and economic co-operation that are in the interests of a particular country."
Trump has said that from Friday he will impose new sanctions on Russia as well as on countries that buy its energy exports, unless Moscow takes steps to end its 3-½-year war in Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin has signalled no change in Russia's stance on the conflict, despite the looming deadline.
New Delhi has called Trump's threats "unjustified" and vowed to protect its economic interests, deepening a trade rift between the two major economies.
'Constant bullying and hectoring'
Two Indian government sources told Reuters on the weekend that India will keep purchasing oil from Russia despite Trump's threats.
In a rare show of unity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the main opposition Congress on Tuesday condemned Trump's repeated criticism of New Delhi.
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Manish Tewari, a member of parliament and Congress leader, said Trump's "disparaging remarks hurt the dignity and self-respect of Indians."
"The time has come to call out this constant bullying and hectoring," he added.
India's foreign ministry said in a statement issued late on Monday that "it is revealing that the very nations criticizing India are themselves indulging in trade with Russia."
"It is unjustified to single out India," the ministry said. It said the EU conducted 67.5 billion euros ($107.4 billion Cdn) in trade with Russia in 2024, including record imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which reached 16.5 million metric tonnes.
The U.S., the statement said, continues to import Russian uranium hexafluoride for use in its nuclear power industry, as well as palladium, fertilizers and chemicals. It did not give a source for the export information.
The U.S. embassy and the EU's delegation in New Delhi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lower energy prices will hurt Putin: Trump
Both the United States and EU have sharply scaled back their trade ties with Russia since it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The sudden rift between India and the U.S. has been deepening since July 31, when Trump announced a 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods being shipped to the U.S. and for the first time threatened unspecified penalties for buying Russian oil.
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"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," Trump said in a social media post on Monday. "They don't care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine."
"If energy goes down enough, Putin is going to stop killing people," Trump added in a Tuesday morning interview on CNBC. "If you get energy down, another $10 a barrel [of oil], he's going to have no choice because his economy stinks."
India is one of the biggest buyers of crude from Russia, importing about 1.75 million barrels per day from January to June this year, up one per cent from a year ago.
"What he [Trump] said very clearly is that it is not acceptable for India to continue financing this war by purchasing the oil from Russia," said Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff at the White House and one of Trump's most influential aides, on Sunday.
Trump and Modi enjoyed a strong relationship in the U.S. president's first term of 2017-2021. But the issues of Russian oil, Trump's tariff threats and his administration's new overtures to Pakistan have led to tension in the relationship this year.
In May, India and Pakistan traded a series of military strikes over a gun massacre in disputed Kashmir that New Delhi blamed Islamabad for. Pakistan denied the accusations.
The four-day conflict made the possibility of a nuclear conflagration between the two sides, with several regional and world leaders urging a de-escalation of hostilities. Since then, Trump has repeated nearly two dozen times that he brokered peace between India and Pakistan.
WATCH l Tariff issues also leading to U.S.-India friction (from March):
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The European Union approved an 18th package of sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine, including sanctions that target the Russian oil and energy industry.
The Russian oil issue has also drawn the attention of the European Union. Nayara Energy — an Indo-Russian refinery majority-owned by Russian entities, including oil major Rosneft ROSN.MM, and a major buyer of Russian oil — was recently sanctioned by the EU.
India has said it does not support "unilateral sanctions" by the EU.