'Unreasonable': India hits back at Trump tirade on Russian oil

In its first direct public pushback against US President Donald Trump's repeated targeting of India over trade with Russia, the Centre termed his criticism "unjustified and unreasonable". It said like any major economy, New Delhi will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security.

In an official statement, ministry of external affairs said the US itself continues to import uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for its EV industry and fertilisers as well as chemicals from Russia.

The response, a rare outpouring of frustration with Trump's rants, followed another outburst by the US president in which he accused India of buying massive amounts of Russian Oil and selling it in the open market for big profits, while threatening to substantially raise tariffs on imports from India.

MEA added that India's imports are meant to ensure predictable and affordable energy costs to Indian consumers and are a necessity compelled by global market situation. "...It is revealing that the very nations criticising India are...indulging in trade with Russia. Unlike our case, such trade is not even a vital national compulsion," said spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.

MEA: Nations slamming India themselves trading with Russia

It is revealing that the very nations criticising India are themselves indulging in trade with Russia. Unlike our case, such trade is not even a vital national compulsion,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.

The official also recalled that the US had in 2022 encouraged Indian imports from Russia as it helped stabilise the global energy market.

Trump’s blunt and open threat, which came on top of the 25% tariffs and unquantified penalty he has already announced last week, did not specify if there would be more or higher tariffs than he has already rolled out. But what seems certain is that he is angered by India’s obduracy in not concluding a trade deal on his terms and its insistence on continuing to buy discounted Russian oil.

In a message he posted on his “Truth Social” platform, Trump also accused India of not caring “how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine”. Trump surrogates have alleged that India and China are virtually bankrolling the war because they are among the world’s top two oil importers, and revenue from hydrocarbons is what is funding the Russian military.

The charge that New Delhi is re-selling Russian oil for profit appears to be a distortion, twisting India’s large refining capacity that makes Russian oil suitable for export, including to Europe.

Trump is also irked by India’s repudiation of his repeated claim that he used the bait of trade to stop the India-Pakistan war, a claim he has made nearly 30 times in several fora. Unable to end the Russia-Ukraine war on “Day One” of his presidency as he had pledged, Trump is talking up his claimed role in the India-Pakistan cessation of hostilities in a transparent bid for a Nobel Prize, including gratuitously canvassing for it with anyone who listens.

The extraordinary threat by the US president, who has weaponised tariffs for a range of objectives from gouging trade deals from poor and vulnerable nations to trying to bring about regime change (like in Brazil) to dismantling groups like Brics, which he sees as a threat to the US and the primacy of its currency, is unprecedented in history.

Combined with Trump’s sudden love for Pakistan, ostensibly for its glib backing for a Nobel Prize for him, it evokes among some commentators memories of Washington’s infamous 1970’s “tilt” during the Nixon administration, when the US tried to bully New Delhi during the Bangladesh Liberation War by sending the US Seventh Fleet to the Bay of Bengal with the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise.

While a much weaker India refused to be browbeaten by the Nixon-Kissinger threat at that time, New Delhi appears to be in as defiant a mood in the face of Trump’s belligerence, potentially risking what some experts have said could be a 2% blow to its GDP growth (currently clocking around 6.5%), but which some govt surrogates say could be as low as 0.2%.

“India has been targeted by the US and the European Union for importing oil from Russia after the commencement of the Ukraine conflict. In fact, India began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict. The United States at that time actively encouraged such imports by India for strengthening global energy markets stability,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.

Such reactions by India were limited earlier to calls by the Europeans to shun trade with Russia. The ministry also said that the EU in 2024 had a bilateral trade of Euro 67.5 billion in goods with Russia. In addition, it had trade in services estimated at Euro 17.2 billion in 2023. This, added the official, is significantly more than India’s total trade with Russia that year or subsequently.

“European imports of LNG in 2024, in fact, reached a record 16.5m tonnes, surpassing the last record of 15.2m tonnes in 2022,” Jaiswal said, adding that Europe-Russia trade includes not just energy, but also fertilizers, mining products, chemicals, iron and steel and machinery and transport equipment.