Condemning India's continued purchase of crude oil from russia, trump has announced that he will increase import duties on indian goods. Meanwhile, russia has strongly condemned this. The Russian Presidential Palace has said that all sovereign countries have the full right to choose the countries they trade with. US President donald trump had accused india of buying Russian oil in large quantities and selling it on the open market for huge profits. trump also criticized india for continuing the war in ukraine because of India's purchase of crude oil from Russia.

He announced that he would impose a 25% tax and fine on india for this. This is causing a rift in the bilateral relationship. Meanwhile, russia has now come to India's support. All sovereign countries can trade with the countries they want, and attempts to force countries to sever trade relations with russia are illegal, Russian Presidential Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said.
Regarding this, he added, "We are aware of attempts to force countries to sever trade relations with Russia. russia does not consider these to be legal. Sovereign countries have the full right to choose their trade and economic partners. All countries have the freedom to choose the countries they need for trade and economic cooperation, according to the interests of each country." india had already retaliated on the trump issue. That is, india had strongly criticized this move as being contrary to India's national interests and completely unfair. In this regard, the indian Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement, saying, "India will import from the necessary countries to meet its energy needs. Purchasing Russian crude oil does not mean that we are politically supporting it. This decision was taken due to the circumstances in the international market.
It is wrong to assume that india supports all Russian activities just by doing trade. india will take all necessary measures to protect India's national interests and economic security," it said. india also pointed out that despite taking a tough stance on the ukraine war issue, even the US and the european union continue to trade energy and essential goods with Russia. Furthermore, india has said that countries that usually supply crude oil to india during the war sent crude oil to the european union, so they started buying from russia as they had no other option. india has criticized that it is wrong to question it now after supporting India's decision to keep crude oil prices under control at that time.

Despite all this talk, both the US and the european union continue to trade with Russia. The US continues to import various goods from Russia. The US is still buying uranium hexafluoride for nuclear power plants, palladium for electric vehicle production, fertilizers, and chemicals from Russia. Similarly, the european union also traded goods worth 67.5 billion euros with russia in 2024. In 2023, service trade was 17.2 billion euros. This is much more than India's total trade with Russia. In addition, european countries continue to buy more natural gas from Russia. It is noteworthy that india pointed this out in its response.
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Sowmiya Sriram

05/08/2025 06:49 PM