Donald Trump to make Oval Office announcement at 2:00 AM tomorrow amid tariff threats; what's brewing?
The meeting comes on the heels of a series of economic and geopolitical warnings from Trump, including a threat to impose steep tariffs on India within 24 hours over its ongoing oil imports from Russia.
Trump also lashed out at American banks, accusing them of political discrimination, and hinted at forthcoming announcements on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.
'India has not been a good trading partner, because they do a lot of business with us, but we don't do business with them. So we settled on 25 percent, but I think I'm going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they're buying Russian oil,' he told CNBC in the televised interview.
Meanwhile, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff has arrived in Moscow and was greeted by Russia's investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev, a source told Reuters on Wednesday, after the Kremlin said it did not rule out Witkoff meeting President Vladimir Putin.
Trump, who warned that he would impose sanctions on Russia if Moscow does not agree to a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine before Friday, had said earlier that Witkoff might be travelling to Moscow this week in yet another diplomatic effort to bring the hostilities to an end, Reuters reported.
India on Monday mounted an unusually sharp counterattack on the US and the European Union for their 'unjustified and unreasonable' targeting of New Delhi for its procurement of Russian crude oil.
Firmly rejecting the criticism, India pointed out the double standards in targeting it on the issue and said both the US and the EU are continuing their trade relations with Russia.
'Unlike our case, such trade is not even a vital national compulsion," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement on Monday night.
Meanwhile, State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce said it will be up to President Trump on how to respond to 'those nations that are facilitating this war on Ukraine'.
When asked about India's statement that it will not alter its stance on purchasing oil from Russia, Bruce responded to a related question about both India and China signalling their intent to continue such purchases despite U.S. sanctions.
India has not been a good trading partner... I think I'm going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours.
She noted that Washington is now considering secondary sanctions, which target countries, companies, or entities that engage in business with already-sanctioned nations, such as Russia, in this case.
(With inputs from agencies)
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