Washington: US President Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro has renewed criticism of India, accusing it of profiting from the Russia-Ukraine war by buying discounted Russian oil, refining it, and reselling it to global markets.
In an interview with Fox News, Navarro described India as a “laundromat for the Kremlin” and alleged that the country’s elite were profiteering “at the expense of ordinary Indians.” He claimed India had not been a significant buyer of Russian crude before Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but its current imports were “fueling the Russian war machine.”
“You’ve got Brahmins profiteering… It kills Ukrainians, and then US taxpayers have to foot the bill,” Navarro said, while defending the Trump administration’s punitive tariffs on Indian exports.
He further argued that India’s growing ties with Moscow and Beijing were undermining global stability. “Modi’s a great leader, but why get close to Putin and Xi Jinping when India is the world’s largest democracy?” he remarked.
The comments came as Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, his first visit to Beijing in seven years, where he is expected to meet both President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir Putin. The timing coincides with Washington’s sharper rhetoric on New Delhi’s energy ties with Moscow and Trump’s escalating protectionist trade stance.
