The Trump admin official’s remarks come amid ongoing trade negotiations between New Delhi and Washington after trade ties strained over 50% tariffs on India.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has now blamed Europe, asserting that the oil India buys from Russia eventually finds its way back to Europe. The Trump aide who earlier accused India of “profiteering” and “making billions” from its reselling of the oil, has now lashed out at Europe for “financing the war against them”.
Citing Trump’s 25 per cent additional tariffs on India over Russian oil trade, Bessent said in the interview: “The most perverse part is, India is buying discounted Russian oil, guess where the refined products are going? They are going back to Europe. So the Europeans are financing the war against them.”
The Trump administration official’s remarks come amid ongoing trade negotiations between India and the US in the aftermath of the whopping 50% tariffs on imports from New Delhi. Half of these duties took effect last month, and were announced as penalties for doing business with Russia. The US has long defended the move against India as a way to pressure Russia into halting its offensive in Ukraine.
In the same interview, Scott Bessent voiced hope that India would steadily ease its reliance on Russian oil. Just last month, however, he sharply criticized India, accusing it of reaping “huge” profits from selling Russian oil during and after the Ukraine war.
On Wednesday, Bessent echoed President Donald Trump’s pitch wherein he sought support from EU and NATO to help Ukraine get back back all of the territory from Russia. “The Russians are testing the Europeans and the European resolve needs to stiffen. They need to put everything on the table in terms of economic sanctions,” Bessent said.
Notably, it was earlier reported that Donald Trump urged the EU to impose sweeping tariffs, as much as 100% on India and China. “We’re ready to go, ready to go right now, but we’re only going to do this if our European partners step up with us,” the Financial Times had quoted an unnamed official as saying.
Meanwhile, trade negotiations are on between India and the US with Union Minister Piyush Goyal’s visit to New York and his meeting with trade representative Jamieson Greer there. Both sides are hopeful to yield a breakthrough and help New Delhi and Washington reach a trade deal, people familiar with the matter earlier said.
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