On Monday, August 4, 2025, in response to US President Donald Trump’s threat to increase tariffs against New Delhi for continuing to buy oil from Russia, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson announced that “India, like any other major economy, will take all necessary measures to protect its national interests and economic security.”
According to Reuters, this stance came after US President Donald Trump, in a post on the social network Truth Social, accused India of buying huge quantities of Russian oil and profiting from selling it on global markets, and threatened to significantly increase import tariffs on Indian goods.
A spokesperson for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs called the move “unfair and illogical,” adding that buying oil from Russia was necessary to provide affordable energy to Indian consumers and was a result of the rerouting of traditional supplies to Europe after the outbreak of the Ukraine war.
