CNN: US Has Made It Clear To India That Trump Is Not Joking Around
- 31.07.2025, 14:27
Tariffs of up to 100% for Russian oil are not a negotiating tactic.
White House officials have made it clear to their Indian counterparts that US President Donald Trump is serious about threatening Asia's second largest economy with giant duties for buying energy from Russia, CNN reported, citing sources in the US administration.
They said Trump's threats to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on Indian goods for New Delhi supplying the Kremlin's war machine by buying up nearly half of Russia's total oil exports is not a negotiating tactic.
The day before, Trump said he was imposing 25 percent duties on India, with which he had previously engaged in tense trade talks. He also threatened "fines" for cooperation with Moscow, including military cooperation, and then said he "doesn't care" if Russia and India sink their "dead economies" together.
For Indian officials who were counting on a trade agreement with Trump, his statements came as a shock, sources in New Delhi told Bloomberg. The U.S. president's ultimatum for India expires on Aug. 1, and for Vladimir Putin on Aug. 8.
"Trump is changing the rules of the game," Senator Lindsey Graham, author of a bill for "crushing sanctions" against Russia, said the previous day. He recommended the Kremlin, which again boasted of supposed "immunity" to sanctions, to ask its trading partners how they felt about the duties.
For now, Indian refineries, which cover a third of oil imports with Russian barrels, do not believe the threats from the White House: they have no plans to cut purchases from Russia, three industry sources told Reuters. In June, India's imports from Russia reached 2 million barrels per day, and the cumulative total for the first half of the year was 1.75 million.
Since the war began, oil supplies from Russia to India have increased more than 30 times, including thanks to discounts that initially reached $14-16 per barrel, and in recent months have been reduced to $2.5-4. Since the introduction of the European embargo at the end of 2022, India has paid Russia about 100 billion euros for oil, second only to China, which imported 125 billion euros worth of black gold, according to CREA estimates.
China's Unipec, the trading arm of state oil major Sinopec, has increased purchases of Russian ESPO grades despite Trump's threats, sources told Reuters: it will receive eight shipments in August. US Treasury Department chief Scott Bessent said following trade talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Stockholm that China intends to protect its "energy sovereignty" and is willing to pay as many duties as necessary.
Amit Ranian, a research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, doubts Trump will succeed in breaking up the oil alliance between Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "For India, Russia offers relatively cheap oil, which is important for the economy, so I don't think India will take the radical step of cutting ties with Russia," Ranian told Bloomberg. - It's not just about oil, Russia is still a credible key power for India."