Russian President Vladimir Putin bids farewell to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi following a meeting in the Russian Kremlin on July 9, 2024.
Gavriil Grigorov | Via Reuters
Russia will be heavily on the growing spat between India and the US on Tuesday, with the Kremlin saying New Delhi can freely choose its own trading partner.
Washington and India’s leadership is in the Loggerheads over Russian oil imports, and President Donald Trump is threatening New Delhi with many sudden tariffs if he continues to buy goods from Russia.
The Kremlin, a key trading partner in India and has remained silent after nausea has erupted in the past few days, commented on Tuesday that Trump’s tariff threat was “an attempt to force the country to halt trade ties with Russia.”
“We do not believe that such a statement is legal,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov continued, speaking with reporters on Tuesday.
“Sovereign countries should have the right to choose their own trading partner, their trade and economic cooperation partner, and they believe they have the right to choose trade and economic cooperation regimes for the interests of certain countries.”
The dispute between Trump and New Delhi is being closely monitored by investors after Trump threatened to “essentially raise” India’s tariffs on Monday, but he did not identify a higher level of taxation. The president had threatened an unspecified “penalty” last week with a 25% obligation on India’s exports.
He also criticized India for discounting Russian oil and “selling it in the open market for great profits.”
On Tuesday, Trump told CNBC’s “Scoobox” that tariff thresholds could exceed 25% in the next 24 hours.
“India was not a good trading partner, so… we settled at 25%, but as we are buying Russian oil, I think we are trying to grow it very effectively over the next 24 hours. They are fueling the war machinery.
India returned to the US later on Monday, and the European Union denounced hypocrisy.
“It makes clear that the very countries that India criticizes itself for indulging in trade with Russia will indulge in trade with Russia. Unlike our case, such trade is not even an important national impulse (to them),” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Western countries use sanctions and import restrictions as ways to curb Moscow’s oil export-generating revenues that fund the war with Ukraine. However, Russian trading partners, particularly India and parts of China, continue to buy discounted Russian crude oil, where the economy is heavily dependent.
India-Russia’s trade ties have been increasing since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Russia has become India’s leading oil supplier after the war began, with imports increasing from less than 100,000 barrels per day of invasion (2.5% of total imports) to over 1.8 million barrels per day in 2023, to 39% of overall imports.
– Lim Hui Jie of CNBC contributed a report to this story.
