Trump on India’s Russia Trade Amid Tariff Threat: “Don’t Know…” | US-India Trade Tensions

Trump on India’s Russia Trade Amid Tariff Threat: As US ups tariff threats against India over Russian oil imports, Trump claims he doesn’t know about US uranium and fertilizer trade with Moscow — which is exactly what India has been saying.

Trump said he plans to raise tariffs on countries that do business with Russia, but didn’t give any numbers or timelines.

"I don't know anything about it. I have to check it out," Trump said on India’s point that US is singling it out unfairly while doing business with Moscow itself.

This was during a press conference at the White House, originally called to discuss the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Trump announced 25% tariffs on Indian imports and unspecified penalties last week, ahead of his August 1 deadline for tariffs to kick in even as talks are ongoing. Later, he threatened to increase that rate because India is buying military equipment and oil from Russia, calling India “Russia’s biggest buyer of energy, along with China”.

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India hit back at Trump’s tariff move, pointing out US imports from Russia. “Where the US is concerned, it continues to import from Russia uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for its EV industry, fertilisers as well as chemicals,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

Citing this, New Delhi called Trump’s targeting of India “unjustified and unreasonable”, and said the government will protect its national interests and economic security.

Even as Trump continues to bash India, threatening to raise tariffs and accusing India of “fuelling the war machine” by doing business with Russia, his own party leader, Indian-American Nikki Haley, has come out in support of India.

On X, the leader called India a “strong ally”, and urged the US not to give a pass to China. "India should not be buying oil from Russia. But China, an adversary and the number one buyer of Russian and Iranian oil, got a 90-day tariff pause. Don’t give China a pass and burn a relationship with a strong ally like India," she wrote on X.

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Three years after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the US still imports billions of dollars worth of Russian energy and commodities, including enriched uranium. Since January 2022, the US has imported $24.51 billion of Russian goods. In 2024 alone, Washington imported fertilizers worth $1.27 billion, uranium and plutonium worth $624 million and palladium worth around $878 million from Moscow.

When asked if he would consider a 100% tariff on countries that continue to buy energy from Russia — including China — Trump said that’s on the table.

"I never said a percentage, but we'll be doing quite a bit of that. We'll see what happens over the next fairly short period of time. But we will see what happens... We have a meeting with Russia tomorrow. We're going to see what happens," Trump said.

The president also added that the goal of the talks will be to end the war between Ukraine and Russia.

"This is the one I’m trying to stop. And one I'm working hardest on. The others stopped within a matter of days," Trump said.

He also said the goal of the talks will be to end the war between Ukraine and Russia.He will decide later on Russia and its partners. Witkoff is in Moscow to meet with the Russian leadership tomorrow.

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