Navarro calls Ukraine 'Modi's War,' hits India over Russian oil

Lauren Dezenski and Joe Mathieu, Bloomberg News on Aug 27, 2025

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White House trade adviser Peter Navarro sought to raise pressure on India to halt purchases of Russian energy after the U.S. imposed crippling new tariffs on New Delhi, casting the conflict in Ukraine as “Modi’s war.”

“I mean Modi’s war because the road to peace runs, in part, through New Delhi,” Navarro said Wednesday on Bloomberg Television’s Balance of Power, referencing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Trump’s 50% tariff on Indian goods took effect earlier Wednesday, a bid to punish the country for continuing to buy Russian oil. It doubled the existing 25% duty Trump imposed earlier this month.

By purchasing Russian oil “at a discount,” Navarro said, “Russia uses the money it gets to fund its war machine kill more Ukrainians.” That, in turn, has taxed U.S. resources in the form of requests from Kyiv for arms and funding, he argued.

“Everybody in America loses because of what India is doing. The consumers and businesses and everything lose, and workers lose because India’s high tariffs cost us jobs, and factories, and income and higher wages. And then the taxpayers lose because we got to fund Modi’s war,” he added.

The 50% tariffs, the highest in Asia, will hit more than 55% of goods shipped to the U.S., which is India’s biggest export market. While key products such as electronics and pharmaceuticals are exempt for now, the duties will hit scores of labor-intensive industries like textiles and jewelry.

The higher tariffs on India came despite months of talks between New Delhi and Washington. While India was one of the first countries to open tariff negotiations with the Trump administration, officials have expressed frustration with the country’s high levies and protectionist policies in key areas such as agriculture.

“What’s troubling to me,” Navarro said, “is that the Indians are so arrogant about this. They say, ‘Oh, we don’t have higher tariffs. Oh, it’s our sovereignty. We can buy oil from any one we want.’”

“India, you’re the biggest democracy in the world, OK, act like one,” Navarro added.

The adviser’s comments echo U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticism of India for buying Russian energy, which he has said helps fund Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, now well into its fourth year.

India has defended purchases of Russian oil as necessary to keep energy prices low and stabilize its domestic market, and has cast the U.S.’s actions as “unjustified.”

Trump pledged to end Russia’s invasion on his first day back in office, but that has failed to materialize. Despite separate face-to-face meetings with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump has still been unable to secure a sit-down between the two or a halt to the fighting.

While Trump has threatened to hit Russia with penalties if Putin does not move to make peace — a prospect the U.S. president floated again on Tuesday when he warned he had “very serious” consequences in mind — he has not carried through on those pledges.

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