Amidst the US 50% Tarrifs that have come into effect , White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro — who had earlier said that India’s purchase of Russian oil is ‘perpetuating’ the Ukraine conflict — escalated his attack on New Delhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In an interview to Bloomberg TV, Navarro controversially called the Ukraine conflict ‘Modi’s war’.
His remarks came just hours after United States President Donald Trump’s 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods came into effect.
The move is expected to hit over half of India’s exports to its largest market, sparing only electronics and pharmaceuticals while heavily impacting textiles, jewellery and other labour-intensive sectors.
Navarro argued that Moscow uses revenue from discounted crude sales to India to fund its ‘war machine’, forcing US taxpayers to bankroll Ukraine’s defence.
‘Everybody in America loses because of what India is doing,’ Navarro said, who had earlier accused New Delhi of acting as a ‘laundromat for the Kremlin’.
When asked if he meant ‘Putin’s war’, Navarro doubled down: ‘I mean Modi’s war, because the road to peace runs, in part, through New Delhi.’
He also accused India of ‘arrogance’ in defending its energy purchases and tariffs.
‘India, you’re the biggest democracy in the world, OK, act like one,’ Navarro remarked.
Pressuring India to halt Russian trade, he said New Delhi could see a 25 per cent reduction in US tariffs if it stops buying discounted crude from Moscow.
Navarro claimed Moscow used money from New Delhi’s ‘discounted’ crude purchase to “fund its war machine.” That, in turn, has taxed US resources in the form of requests from Kyiv for arms and funding, he argued.
