US President Donald Trump’s punitive 50 per cent tariffs on imports from India were meant to get an “aggressive economic leverage” for forcing Russia to stop bombing Ukraine, according to American Vice President JD Vance. Trump’s number two remained confident that the US can broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, despite potential hang-ups that have emerged since the American President met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, earlier this month.
“Trump has applied aggressive economic leverage, for example, secondary tariffs on India, to try to make it harder for the Russians to get rich from their oil economy,” Vance said while speaking during an exclusive interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press”.
Expressing optimism over America’s capability to facilitate peace between Russia and Ukraine, Vance said, “We believe we’ve already seen some significant concessions from both sides, just in the last few weeks.”
“He (Trump) tried to make it clear that Russia can be reinvited into the world economy if they stop the killing. But they are going to continue to be isolated if they don’t stop the killing,” he added.
Trump’s Tariffs On India
The relationship between New Delhi and Washington has deteriorated since the Trump administration started targeting India over its procurement of discounted crude oil from Russia. Interestingly, Washington has refrained from making similar criticisms of China or Europe, the largest importer of Russian crude oil and gas, respectively.
Earlier this month, the US leader announced that Washington will increase tariffs on Indian products to 50 per cent, including an additional 25 per cent duty imposed as punishment for India’s Russian crude oil purchases.
Washington claims that India’s purchase of Russian oil is supporting Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine, an accusation that New Delhi firmly denies. India has maintained that its energy procurement, including from Russia, is purely driven by national interest and market dynamics.
New Delhi turned to purchasing Russian oil sold at a discount after Western countries imposed sanctions on Moscow and shunned its supplies over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
On Saturday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said at an event in New Delhi, “It’s funny to have people who work for a pro-business American administration accusing other people of doing business.” He was responding to a question on the US criticism of India on the crude oil issue.
“That’s really curious. If you have a problem buying oil or refined products from India, don’t buy it. Nobody forces you to buy it. But Europe buys, America buys, so you don’t like it, don’t buy it,” Jaishankar said.
