Trump Vows India’s ‘Massive Tariffs’ Will Remain Until Russian Oil Imports Stop

Last week, the U.S. president said that India had pledged to stop purchasing oil from Russia, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given an assurance.

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) shake hands at the White House on Feb. 13, 2025. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

President Donald Trump on Oct. 19 said that India will continue to face “massive tariffs” if it keeps buying Russian oil.

“I spoke with Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi of India, and he said he’s not going to be doing the Russian oil thing,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One, reiterating previous assurances he said he had received from the Indian premier.

Trump added that if India does not adhere to this, “then they'll just continue to pay massive tariffs, and they don’t want to do that.”

The remarks came amid the growing pressure the U.S. president is putting on international partners to stop purchasing Russian oil, which he says is funding the war against Ukraine.

Last week, the U.S. president said that India had pledged to stop purchasing oil from Russia, saying Modi had given the assurance on Oct. 15.

“That’s a big stop,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a press conference on Oct. 15. “Now [I’ve] got to get China to do the same thing.”

In August, Trump, who is in trade talks with India, doubled tariffs on the South Asian country to 50 percent, linking the increase to the purchase of Russian oil.

Writing in an Aug. 6 executive order, Trump said that the Indian government is “currently directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil.”

“Accordingly, and as consistent with applicable law, articles of India imported into the customs territory of the United States shall be subject to an additional ad valorem rate of duty of 25 percent,” the executive order stated.

Russia’s Trading Partner

In recent years, India has become one of Russia’s most important trading partners, with annual bilateral trade rising to nearly $69 billion. The rapid increase in trade has been fueled primarily by energy purchases.

Before Russia invaded Ukraine, India’s annual crude oil imports from Russia hovered at about $1 billion. Since the war began, imports have skyrocketed, reaching $25.5 billion in 2022, $48.6 billion in 2023, and $52.7 billion in 2024, according to the U.N. Comtrade database.

Experts at the Observer Research Foundation think tank estimate that India accounts for more than one-third of Russia’s crude exports, behind China’s 50 percent share.

The Epoch Times contacted the Indian government for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Pressure on International Partners

The Trump administration has also sought to put pressure on other nations, including those in Europe.

On Sept. 4, the president called on European leaders to halt purchases of Russian oil and urged them to put economic pressure on Beijing for supporting the Kremlin’s war effort.

During a summit of Ukraine’s allies, Trump said that Russia earned around 1.1 billion euros ($1.28 billion) from fuel sales to the European Union over the past year, revenue that the U.S. president said was helping to sustain the military campaign.

On Sept. 12, finance ministers from the G7—which comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the United States—held a video conference in which they discussed U.S. calls to impose tariffs on China and India to pressure them to stop buying Russian oil.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the group that they should join the United States in imposing secondary tariffs on countries that purchase oil from Russia, according to a statement by Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

“Only with a unified effort that cuts off the revenues funding [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war machine at the source will we be able to apply sufficient economic pressure to end the senseless killing,” Bessent and Greer said in the statement.

Emel Akan, Andrew Moran, Alex Wu, and Reuters contributed to this report.