• Source:JND
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US President Donald Trump’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, has once again taken sharp aim at India, warning that New Delhi’s trade and energy policies could trigger a major confrontation with Washington. In a strongly worded interview to conservative media platform Real America’s Voice, Navarro doubled down on his “Tariff Maharaja” jibe, accusing India of profiteering from discounted Russian oil while maintaining some of the world’s highest tariff barriers against American exports. Navarro’s latest tirade comes amid Trump’s renewed push to tighten tariffs on major trading partners if re-elected, with India now finding itself repeatedly singled out.

Navarro alleged that India’s trade practices are “unfair” and that New Delhi is “taking too much advantage” of American markets. “India has the highest tariffs in any major country in the world against the United States. We got to deal with that. At some point India must come around. If it doesn’t, it’s lying down with Russia and China, and that won’t end well for India,” Navarro said. He added that Washington had been able to strike what he called “great” trade deals with the European Union, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Indonesia, but New Delhi continued to resist.

Russian Oil At The Centre Of Dispute

The former White House official accused Indian refiners of turning into a “laundromat for Kremlin oil money,” claiming New Delhi was indirectly funding Russia’s war in Ukraine. “Before the invasion, Russian oil was less than one per cent of India’s imports. Today it’s over 30 per cent—more than 1.5 million barrels a day. India refines and flips that oil for profit while Russia pockets hard currency to finance its war machine. American taxpayers pay the price,” Navarro alleged.

Turning his fire on the BRICS grouping, Navarro dismissed the alliance as “unstable” and “unsustainable.” “The bottom line is none of these countries can survive if they don’t sell to the United States. Their exports are like vampires sucking us dry with unfair trade practices. Historically, they all hate each other and kill each other. I don’t see BRICS lasting,” he said. He highlighted fault lines between members, pointing to India’s decades-long border tensions with China, Beijing’s role in Pakistan’s nuclear program, and Russia’s vulnerabilities in its Far East territories. He also mocked Brazil’s economy, accusing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of “socialist mismanagement.”

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Navarro’s attacks were not limited to television interviews. On the social media platform X, he accused Indian “special interests” of manipulating polls after users fact-checked his claims about Russian oil. “India has the largest population in the world, & all it can do is manage a few hundred thousand X propagandists to jerk around a poll? Too funny. America: look at how foreign interests use our social media to advance their agenda,” Navarro wrote in a post. His comments followed an online poll he launched on X, in which 75 per cent of respondents pushed back against his assertions on India’s oil purchases.

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But India has consistently defended its purchases, stressing that discounted crude has helped shield domestic consumers from volatility in global energy markets. New Delhi also points out that the G7’s USD 60-per-barrel price cap mechanism was designed precisely to allow Russian oil to continue flowing into global supply chains without boosting Moscow’s revenues.

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