The trade advisor of US President Donald Trump, Peter Navarro on Friday accused India of using American trade dollars to finance Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Backing US’ newly imposed 50 per cent tariffs on Indian imports, Peter said that Indian refiners, working with “silent Russian partners,” were making huge profits by refining Russian oil and selling it in international markets while “Russia pockets hard currency to fund its war on Ukraine.”
Expressing himself on micro blogging site X, he said, “India uses our dollars to buy discounted Russian crude. This isn’t just about India’s unfair trade—it’s about cutting off the financial lifeline India has extended to Putin’s war machine.”
According to Navarro, “Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian oil made up less than 1 per cent of India’s imports. Today? Over 30 per cent — more than 1.5 million barrels a day. This surge isn’t driven by domestic demand—it’s driven by Indian profiteers and carries an added price of blood and devastation in Ukraine.”
“India’s Big Oil lobby has turned the largest democracy in the world into a massive refining hub and oil money laundromat for the Kremlin,” he claimed, adding that India now exports more than 1 million barrels a day in refined petroleum, over half of the Russian crude it imports.
He said the Biden administration “largely looked the other way at this madness,” while President Trump was confronting it directly. “A 50 per cent tariff – 25 per cent for unfair trade and 25 per cent for national security — is a direct response. If India, the world’s largest democracy, wants to be treated like a strategic partner of the US, it needs to act like one. The road to peace in Ukraine runs through New Delhi.”
On the criticism, he said, “While the United States pays to arm Ukraine, India bankrolls Russia even as it slaps some of the world’s highest tariffs on US goods, which in turn punishes American exporters. We run a USD 50-billion trade deficit with India—and they’re using our dollars to buy Russian oil. They make a killing and Ukrainians die.”
“It doesn’t stop there. India continues to buy Russian weapons—while demanding that US firms transfer sensitive military tech and build plants in India. That’s strategic freeloading,” he added.
