The White House is reportedly urging European partners to align with US pressure on India’s booming imports of discounted Russian crude, as Washington accuses New Delhi of inadvertently “funding Moscow’s war” in Ukraine. President Donald Trump has already hiked tariffs on $48 billion of Indian exports – calling India’s oil purchases “fuelling the war machine” – and is said to want Europe to adopt similar punitive duties. New Delhi, for its part, defends its crude-buying as stabilizing global oil markets and insists Western governments are themselves trading heavily with Russia. The clash comes as Brussels has banned most Russian energy and New Delhi expands fuel exports, raising fresh tensions in geopolitics, energy markets and trade law.
US officials argue that India’s sudden surge in Russian oil imports is unacceptable. India took in an estimated 1.73 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian crude between January and July 2025 – over a third of its imports – and roughly the same pace continued into August (about 1.5 million bpd in the first 20 days). Those volumes make India by far the world’s largest seaborne buyer of Russian oil, covering around 40% of its own oil needs.
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White House advisers have bluntly accused India of profiteering from deep discounts: “India’s purchases of Russian crude were funding Moscow’s war”, trade advisor Peter Navarro told Reuters, and Treasury officials noted the share of Russian oil in India’s imports jumped from under 1% pre-war to over 40%. In public, President Trump vowed to raise America’s tariffs on Indian goods “very substantially” if India did not stop buying Moscow’s oil. U.S. officials say the aim is to tighten sanctions that were put in place after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
At the same time, Washington has quietly pressed European capitals to take similar action against India, according to media reports. The New York Times notes the US executive order that authorized new duties targets countries “directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil.” US commentators have urged the EU to impose so-called secondary tariffs on India – a move not previously attempted on this scale by any major economy. European leaders have so far stayed publicly silent on any such step.
Brussels’ focus has been on enforcing the existing oil embargo and price cap on Russia: since late 2022 the EU banned 90% of its Russian oil imports , phased out all refined products from Russian crude, and agreed new LNG deals with the US, Middle East and Africa under its REPowerEU strategy.
India’s Strong Rebuttal
New Delhi has angrily rejected US demands as unjust. The Indian government points out that many Western nations have continued to buy large volumes of Russian energy. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal noted that when Russia’s invasion began, “traditional supplies were diverted to Europe,” and the US had even “actively encouraged” India to import Russian crude to stabilize global markets .
He stressed India’s purchases were driven by national interest – ensuring “predictable and affordable energy costs” for its consumers – and pointed out perceived hypocrisy: “European imports of LNG in 2024 … reached a record 16.5 million tonnes,” he said, and the US “continues to import from Russia uranium hexafluoride… fertilisers and chemicals” . In a hard-edged statement, India’s foreign ministry accused the US and EU of singling out India unfairly, noting that the EU’s trade with Russia in 2024 exceeded India’s share, and bluntly declaring “it is unjustified to single out India” for buying Russian oil.
Indian political commentators say New Delhi must safeguard its energy security. One former state oil company chairman asked: “Has Europe or any other significant taker of Russian oil and gas reduced its consumption yet?” If India stops buying discounted oil, he argued, Russia will simply sell those barrels elsewhere, driving prices back up. Economists like Biswajit Dhar of Jawaharlal Nehru University go further: “For a sovereign country to hear this kind of threat from another country is unacceptable,” he told Al Jazeera, referring to the US tariff pressure. India is the world’s third-largest oil consumer, and the government says a stable, diversified supply is critical for development.
Fuel Flows and Market data
Most of the Russian crude landed in India is processed by private refiners Reliance Industries and Nayara Energy, which together account for about 60% of India’s Russian oil imports. Those refineries have boosted production of diesel, jet fuel and other products. Reuters data show Reliance’s Jamnagar complex exported 21.7 million tonnes of fuels in the first half of 2025, to buyers including BP, Exxon, Vitol and Glencore. Notably, Europe was the single largest destination for Jamnagar’s products – about 28% of Reliance’s exports in that period went to European markets.
Nayara, which is majority-owned by Russia’s Rosneft, also shipped nearly 3 million tonnes of refined fuels in H1 2025 (roughly 30% of its output) to customers in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. In effect, some of the oil originally produced for European buyers is now routing through India’s tankers and refineries, helping to offset Europe’s direct ban on Russian crude.
Europe’s energy strategy since 2022 has been to eliminate dependence on Kremlin-controlled supplies. The EU sanctions now cover roughly 90% of what Europe used to buy from Russia, including crude and refined products. To fill the gap, Brussels has pursued new imports of liquefied natural gas from the US, Qatar and Algeria, and accelerated renewables and energy efficiency under the REPowerEU plan.
Enforcement of the oil embargo has tightened: in mid-2025 the EU added an outright ban on any fuels refined from Russian crude and sanctioned violators (such as tankers or refiners) when they are caught. Even so, sanctions experts caution that indirect oil trade is hard to police. Traders have in past months used complex ship-routing and “shadow fleet” deals to sell Russian oil into global markets, a web that has drawn the keen attention of G7 compliance units.
Expert Analysis
Energy-policy analysts say the US demands carry risks. A Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy Q&A noted that President Trump’s move – targeting India but not China – seems driven more by commercial frustrations than by pure concern for Ukraine. “The fact that President Trump has singled out India – Russia’s second-largest oil buyer – while sparing China – the largest – is strong evidence that his motivation stems more from frustration with the slow progress in US-India trade talks,” writes analyst Ed Fishman.
Columbia experts also point out that broad tariffs may not even hit the key decision-makers in India. “Tariffs may not be as effective as sanctions in targeting the actual players who would be most likely to take steps to reduce Russian oil purchases,” they argue. If the 50% duties take effect, India will face a stark choice: continue importing cheap Russian crude and accept crippling US export tariffs, or pay higher prices on the open market to avoid sanctions – a politically painful tradeoff.
Some European analysts worry that the US tactic might backfire. As one think-tank report observes, unilateral secondary tariffs are virtually untested in the WTO era. By global trade rules, all WTO members must apply tariffs at or below agreed “bound” levels and grant each other most-favored-nation treatment. Punishing India for trading with a third country is unprecedented; it could only be justified under the GATT’s narrow security exception (Article XXI) – a controversial claim at the World Trade Organization. In other words, the US push moves beyond normal trade policy into murky legal territory.
Diplomatic Fallout
US and European leaders have been careful about openly criticizing India, recognizing its strategic importance in Asia. Under President Biden, officials had largely avoided censure of India to preserve cooperation on China and counterterrorism. Now, tougher talk out of Washington is testing that approach. New Delhi has made clear it will retaliate on trade if pressed: India has threatened counter-tariffs and has complained to the WTO about the US measures. The row is likely to figure in upcoming summits: Prime Minister Modi is due to meet President Putin and China’s Xi Jinping at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation forum, where Ukraine and trade tensions are expected to loom large.
In the near term, analysts say the dispute could depress business sentiment and risk unintended consequences. India’s stock market and currency weakened after the tariff announcement, and some multinational companies are revisiting supply chains. If Europe heeds the US call, New Delhi could turn further toward Russia and China for support. Even if the tariffs remain mostly on paper, the episode highlights a fraught dilemma: how to enforce sanctions against Russia without alienating countries that are not directly involved in the conflict. The U.S. is betting on coordinated pressure, but whether Europe will join in punishing India remains an open question – one that could have lasting implications for geopolitics and global energy markets.
