'India acts as a global clearinghouse': Key Trump advisor on New Delhi's Russian oil imports

After US President Donald Trump's meeting with Russian President in Alaska, White House trade advisor Peter Navarro on Monday reiterated the claim that India's purchases of Russian crude oil were funding the Russia-Ukraine war.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump announced an additional 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods due to India's continued purchase of Russian oil. With this, the total tariffs on imports from India has gone up to 50 per cent.

At the outset, he gave New Delhi an ultimatum of sorts and said in an opinion piece for the UK edition of The Financial Times: "If India wants to be treated as a strategic partner of the US, it needs to start acting like one."

Not only did he reiterate the claims that India is funding Russia's offensive against Ukraine, Navarro also termed New Delhi's dependence on Russian oil as "opportunistic and deeply corrosive of the world's efforts to isolate Putin's war economy".

"India acts as a global clearinghouse for Russian oil, converting embargoed crude into high-value exports while giving Moscow the dollars it needs," Navarro further wrote.

Not only did Peter Navarro hit out at India's purchases of Russian oil, he also flagged New Delhi's close ties with Moscow and Beijing. He underlined that India's close ties with Russia and China made it risky to transfer cutting-edge American military capabilities to New Delhi.

Navarro said that Russia supplied roughly 36 per cent of India's total arms imports between 2020-24. Navaarro, who is one of the seniormost advisors to Trump, also said that while India has turned to the US, France and Israel to meet its defence requirements, the deals with these three countries "often come with strings attached."

Citing India's demand for technology transfer and its condition of setting up factories on Indian soil, the White House trade advisor commented: "That blunts any benefit to reducing America's trade balance while it also risks transferring cutting-edge US military capabilities to an India now cozying up to both Russia and China."

Meanwhile, India's External Affairs Ministry earlier said that the country is being singled out unfairly for buying Russian oil while the US, the European Union and China continue to purchase goods from Russia.

Moreover, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) head of finance Anuj Jain told an analyst meeting on Monday that the country's top refiner will continue to purchase Russian oil depending on economics.

He explained that IOCL's Russian oil processing in the June quarter was around 24 per cent compared to an average of 22 per cent in 2024-25. Jain mentioned purchases for the September quarter will continue and the discounts on Russian oil were around $1.50 per barrel to the Dubai benchmark.

(With agency inputs)