Trump aide accuses India of ‘funding Putin’s war’ with Russian oil purchases

US president Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro has accused India of fuelling Russia’s war in Ukraine by continuing to buy discounted Russian oil, The Independent reports.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Navarro went as far as to call the conflict «Modi’s war», claiming New Delhi’s purchases were «funding the war machine». When asked if he meant Putin’s war, he replied: «Modi’s war.»
The remarks came after Washington imposed 50% tariffs on Indian goods, including a 25% penalty linked to India’s imports of Russian energy and weapons.
«Everybody in America loses because of what India is doing,» Navarro said. «Consumers, businesses and workers lose because India’s high tariffs cost us jobs, factories and income. And then the taxpayers lose because we’ve got to fund Modi’s war.»
India has condemned the new tariffs as «unfair and unreasonable», saying it will continue buying Russian oil to secure energy for its 1.4 bn citizens. Russia now supplies nearly 40% of India’s crude imports, compared with under 2 per cent before the war began.
China has also criticised the US tariffs, accusing Washington of using trade duties as a «bargaining chip».
Kursiv Uzbekistan also reports that On September 3, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev will travel to China to attend a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of liberation from Japanese occupation and the end of the Second World War.