The remark comes a day after Donald Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House and assured of a trilateral meeting with Vladimir Putin.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that US President Donald Trump took several actions, including the secondary tariffs on India, to bring the war in Ukraine to an end.
This reiteration comes as a top US official said that India made “huge” profits on the sale of Russian oil during and after the war in Ukraine, and Trump said that his sanctions on New Delhi probably played a role in Russian President Vladimir Putin meeting him.
Addressing a press briefing, Leavitt said, “The President has put tremendous public pressure to bring this war to a close. He has taken actions as you seen sanctions on India and other actions as well. He has made himself very clear that he wants to see this war and he has rejected the ideas of others that have been raised that we should wait another month before any meetings takes place.”
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She asserted that Donald Trump wants to move forward and bring the war in Ukraine to an end as quickly as possible.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, with the former signalling his openness to a trilateral meeting with Putin to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.
Trump said that he had a very successful day, while Zelensky noted that this was the “best conversation” he had with the US President so far.
Scott Bessent on India tariffs
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, while speaking to CNBC, argued why China has not yet seen any penalties for buying Russian oil, while the case for India has been otherwise.
He said that the treatment is different because India has been “profiteering” and “making billions” from its reselling of the oil.
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Bessent said India had “less than 1 per cent” of its oil from Russia “and now its up to 42 per cent”. He added, “India is just profiteering, they are reselling… They made 16 billion in excess profits, some of the richest families in India.”
“This is a completely different thing. Indian arbitrage, which is buying cheap oil and reselling it, has just sprung up during the [Ukraine] war. This is just unacceptable,” Bessent added.
Top US advisor criticises India over Russian oil trade
Meanwhile, White House trade advisor Peter Navarro criticised India for purchasing Russian energy and defence equipment, pledging to “hit India where it hurts” to get New Delhi to change its policy.
He termed India’s oil trade with Russia “opportunistic” and “corrosive” to global efforts being made to end the war in Ukraine and isolate the Russian economy.
“As Russia continues to hammer Ukraine, helped by India’s financial support, American (and European) taxpayers are then forced to spend tens of billions more to help Ukraine’s defence. Meanwhile, India keeps slamming the door on American exports through high tariffs and trade barriers. More than 300,000 soldiers and civilians have been killed, while Nato’s eastern flank grows more exposed and the west foots the bill for India’s oil laundering,” Navarro wrote in an opinion piece for the Financial Times.
Before his meeting with Putin in Alaska last week, Trump had told a Fox News Radio show that his ‘penalty’ on India prompted the Russian President to meet him, saying that “everything has an impact”.
The US President said that when he told India about the doubled tariffs, it “essentially took them out of buying oil from Russia”. He noted that India is the second largest purchaser of Russian oil and said it was getting pretty close to China, the largest buyer of oil from Russia.
Before Trump doubled India’s tariff to 50 per cent by imposing an additional 25 per cent levy on the previously announced 25 per cent, he said that India was “fueling the war machine” by buying oil from Russia.
The article originally appeared on Hindustan Times
