US President Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro on Thursday increased his criticism of India. He accused PM Modi of supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine by buying discounted oil. He warned that India’s growing economic ties with Moscow and Beijing could harm global stability. In an interview with Bloomberg, Navarro accused India of being two-faced about trade and energy, claiming that its actions amounted to “Modi’s war.”
Why Navarro attacks India
“If India stops buying Russian oil, it can get 25% off tomorrow,” Navarro said when asked if 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. Yet they look us straight in the eye and say they don’t have the highest tariffs in the world when they do.
Then they say they’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.
Country continue to buy discounted Russian oil
Navarro argued that Indian refiners were profiting from cheap Russian crude, which worsens 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. You’re getting in bed with the authoritarians. China invaded Aksai Chin and all your territory. These are not your friends.” He added that Indian purchases of roughly 1.5 million barrels of Russian oil each day were enough to fund “a lot of drones and bombs to kill Ukrainians.”
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