Taking his often-repeated allegations against India to the floor of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (23) accused India and China of being “primary funders” of the Russian war in Ukraine.
Delivering his first address to the UNGA in his second term, Mr. Trump reiterated his claim that he had intervened to stop a conflict between India and Pakistan in May.
He warned that he was prepared to impose “very strong tariffs” to halt the purchase of Russian oil, but urged European nations to join the effort. Mr. Trump criticized several NATO countries for continuing to buy Russian energy, including natural gas.
Despite China importing significantly more Russian energy than India, Washington has singled out New Delhi by imposing “penalty tariffs” of 25%, effectively doubling duties on Indian goods.
“China and India are primary funders of the war by continuing to purchase Russian oil,” Mr. Trump said during his hour-long speech. “It is inexcusable that even NATO countries have not cut off much of Russia’s energy and energy products,” he added.
While the European Union last week announced its 19th round of sanctions against Russia, it has not imposed tariffs on India as the U.S. has. However, Brussels has sanctioned several Indian entities, including the Rosneft-controlled Nayara Energy, which processes a large share of Russian crude imported into India.
Mr. Trump also repeated his claim that he played a key role in ensuring a ceasefire between India and Pakistan during Operation Sindoor in May—an assertion India has consistently denied.
Listing what he described as the “seven wars” he has ended, Mr. Trump counted the India-Pakistan conflict among them, saying, “In all cases, they were raging with countless, thousands of people being killed. No President or Prime Minister, and for that matter, no other country, has done anything close to that, and I did it in just seven months.” He went on to enumerate conflicts between “Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, Congo and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
The Indian government has not yet responded to Mr. Trump’s latest remarks. In August, the Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement refuting Washington’s characterization of India’s Russian oil purchases, stressing that other countries also import Russian oil and pointing out that the U.S. continues to trade in other sectors, including critical minerals, with Moscow.
India has also repeatedly stated, including in a June 17 readout of a phone call between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump, that the Operation Sindoor ceasefire was a bilateral agreement between India and Pakistan, with no third-party involvement.
