US President Donald Trump’s trade counsellor Peter Navarro on Thursday sharply escalated his criticism of India, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of fuelling Russia’s war in Ukraine through discounted oil purchases and warning that India’s growing economic links with Moscow and Beijing risk undermining global stability. In an interview with Bloomberg, Navarro accused India of playing a double game on trade and energy, alleging that its actions amounted to “Modi’s war”.“If India stops buying Russian oil, it can get 25% off tomorrow,” Navarro said when asked whether Washington was still in talks with New Delhi. “What’s troubling to me is that Modi is a great leader, India is a mature democracy, and yet they look us bald-faced in the eye and say they don’t have the highest tariffs in the world, when in fact they do. Then they say we’re not going to stop buying Russian oil. Now what does that mean? Russia uses the money it gets to fund its war machine, kill more Ukrainians, and then Ukraine comes to us and Europe and says give us more money. So American taxpayers lose because we’ve got to fund Modi’s war.”Also read: Hours after 50% tariffs hit, Delhi,DC say channels open for talks
Navarro argued that Indian refiners were taking advantage of cheap Russian crude to turn a profit, worsening the conflict. “When India buys Russian oil at a discount and then Indian refiners, in partnership with Russian refiners, sell it at a premium to the rest of the world, everybody in America loses,” he said. “The road to peace runs at least partly through New Delhi’s war. I mean, Modi war.”
Navarro also dismissed India’s claims of sovereignty over its oil imports, accusing the government of arrogance. “India, you’re the biggest democracy in the world. Act like one. Side with the democracies. You’re getting in bed with the authoritarians. China invaded Aksai Chin and all your territory. These are not your friends, folks.” He added that Indian purchases of roughly 1.5 million barrels of Russian oil per day were enough to bankroll “a lot of drones and bombs to kill Ukrainians”.The comments come as the United States this week imposed a 50% tariff on Indian goods. The measure is expected to hit 66% of India’s exports to America. In 2024-25, the bilateral trade in goods stood at $131.8 billion ($86.5 billion exports and $45.3 billion imports), as reported by PTI.
Exporters have warned of closures, job losses, and orders being cancelled, with one apparel industry executive telling PTI that the move has “effectively driven the Indian apparel industry out of the US market”.Navarro defended the tariff escalation, calling Indian trade policies unfair. “In India, 25% tariffs were put in place because they cheat us on trade. Then 25% because of the Russian oil,” he said. “That hurts American workers and businesses. Then they use the money that they get from us when they sell us stuff to buy Russian oil… and the Russians use the money to build more arms and kill Ukrainians. So American taxpayers have to provide more aid. That’s insane.”His hard line contrasts with others in Washington. Former US ambassador Nikki Haley has urged Trump to rebuild ties with India, calling it a “prized free and democratic partner” against China. Economist Jeffrey Sachs has branded the tariffs “bizarre” and “self-destructive”, warning they could drive Brics countries closer together.New Delhi has pushed back strongly. External affairs minister S Jaishankar said it was “perplexing” to target India when China and the EU remain Russia’s largest buyers of oil and gas. “We are a country where the Americans have said for the last few years that we should do everything to stabilise the world energy market, including buying oil from Russia,” Jaishankar said, calling the extra tariffs “extremely unfortunate” and pledging to “take all actions necessary to protect national interests”.