• Source:JND
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India on Friday slammed claims by US President Donald Trump's top trade advisor, Peter Navarro, who accused New Delhi of buying Russian oil purely for profit. The Ministry of External Affairs dubbed his claims “inaccurate and misleading”. "We have seen the inaccurate and misleading statements made by Mr. Navarro, and obviously, we reject them. We have also spoken about it earlier,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a presser in New Delhi.

However, he maintained the relations between both countries are crucial and added New Delhi wants a good relation with Washington. “This relationship between the United States and India is very important for us.  Both our countries share a comprehensive global strategic partnership, which is anchored in our shared interests, democratic values and robust people-to-people ties,” said Jaiswal. 

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Jaiswal noted the India-US relations had suffered challanges in the past and posed optimism that the two countries will maintain the same this time too. "This partnership has weathered several transitions and challenges. We remain focused on the substantive agenda that our two countries have committed to, and we hope that the relationship will continue to move forward based on mutual respect and shared interests," said Jaiswal

Navarro's controversial remarks against India

In the past two weeks, Navarro made several controversial remarks against New Delhi. "India's big oil lobby has turned the largest democracy in the world into a "massive refining hub and oil money laundromat for the Kremlin", Navarro said last week.

Last week, Navarro accused India of being an "oil money laundromat for the Kremlin" and described it as "strategic freeloading" New Delhi continuing to buy Russian weapons while urging American defence firms to transfer sensitive military technologies and set up manufacturing plants in India.

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"If India, the world's largest democracy, wants to be treated like a strategic partner of the US, it needs to act like one," he said, in a series of social media posts attacking New Delhi. The relations between New Delhi and Washington are on a downturn after President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50 per cent including a 25 per cent additional duties for India's purchase of Russian crude oil.

The 25 per cent tariff has already come into effect and additional levies are due from August 27.

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India described the US action as "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable" and even wondered why it has been singled out for the punitive action. Surprisingly, the US has not imposed any punitive measure on China, the largest importer of Russian crude oil.

Defending its purchase of Russian crude oil, India has been maintaining that its energy procurement is driven by national interest and market dynamics. India turned to purchasing Russian oil sold at a discount after Western countries imposed sanctions on Moscow and shunned its supplies over its invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022.

Consequently, from a mere 1.7 per cent share in total oil imports in 2019-20, Russia's share increased to 35.1 per cent in 2024-25, and it is now the biggest oil supplier to India.

(With inputs from agency)