India slams EU, US trade with Russia after Trump’s tariff threat

India has pushed back strongly against U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to impose steep new tariffs, accusing both the U.S. and the European Union of hypocrisy over their ongoing trade with Russia.

In a statement released late Monday, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said the country was being “unfairly targeted” for importing Russian oil, even though its purchases began only after traditional suppliers were redirected to Europe following the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022.

The ministry pointed out that while India’s trade with Russia is based on essential national interests like affordable energy access, both the U.S. and EU continue to engage in trade with Moscow that is not as vital. “It is revealing that the very nations criticizing India are themselves indulging in trade with Russia. Unlike our case, such trade is not even a vital national compulsion for them,” the ministry said.

Citing European Commission data, India highlighted that the EU’s goods trade with Russia in 2024 was valued at 67.5 billion euros, along with 17.2 billion euros in services trade in 2023 — significantly higher than India’s total trade with Russia. India’s bilateral trade with Moscow hit a record -$68.7 billion in the year ending March 2025, compared to just -$10.1 billion before the pandemic.

Trump’s threats come amid accusations that India is profiting from discounted Russian oil and reselling it globally. However, India maintains that the U.S. had previously supported these imports to stabilize global energy markets. Former U.S. Ambassador Eric Garcetti even acknowledged that the U.S. encouraged India to buy Russian oil.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, India imported over 1.8 million barrels of oil per day from Russia in 2023 — 39% of its total oil imports, up from just 2.5% before the war. The International Energy Agency also reported that 70% of Russia’s crude exports in 2024 went to India.

India’s energy minister Hardeep Singh Puri reiterated that the country’s imports helped keep global oil prices stable. “If people had stopped buying Russian oil at that time, prices could have soared to -$130 per barrel,” he said in a recent interview.

India also pointed out that the U.S. continues to import key Russian goods like uranium hexafluoride for nuclear energy, palladium for electric vehicles, and fertilizers, even as it criticizes other nations for similar trade.

U.S.-Russia bilateral trade fell to -$5.2 billion in 2024, down from nearly -$36 billion in 2021, but Washington has yet to impose any reciprocal tariffs on Russian goods. In this context, India said the threats of punitive tariffs from the U.S. were “unjustified and unreasonable.”

"Like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security," the statement concluded.

Trade experts say India’s position is not without merit. Rachel Ziemba, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told CNBC that India is caught in the crossfire of complex geopolitical and trade tensions. “Some of India’s concerns are justified, especially considering the previous U.S. administration’s role in facilitating the current price cap system,” she said.