MY KOLKATA EDUGRAPH
ADVERTISEMENT
regular-article-logo Monday, 18 August 2025

‘Oil laundering’: Donald Trump’s trade czar paints India as villain in Russia-Ukraine war

Peter Navarro, who Elon Musk says is dumber than a sack of bricks, ignores that Washington buys palladium from Moscow & VGO from India, which is possibly refined from Russian oil

Paran Balakrishnan Published 18.08.25, 07:07 PM

TTO Graphics.

Donald Trump’s trade czar Peter Navarro has launched a vicious, no-holds-barred attack on India and its purchases of Russian oil and armaments.

“As Russia continues to hammer Ukraine, helped by India’s financial support, American (and European) taxpayers are then forced to spend tens of billions more to help Ukraine’s defence,” Navarro fumed in an article in London’s Financial Times.

ADVERTISEMENT

Navarro appeared to blame India for funding the entire Russian war effort, raging that, “More than 300,000 soldiers and civilians have been killed, while Nato’s eastern flank grows more exposed and the west foots the bill for India’s oil laundering.”

In his rant, Navarro portrayed India as the villain of the entire Russia-Ukraine war by drawing a highly simplified picture of global trade.

He says: “Here’s how the India-Russia oil mathematics works. American consumers buy Indian goods. India uses those dollars to buy discounted Russian crude. That Russian crude is refined and resold around the world by Indian profiteers in league with silent Russian partners – while Russia pockets hard currency to fund its war machine in Ukraine.”

Navarro is the White House counsellor for trade and manufacturing and for decades has been a trade hardliner who insists that the world takes advantage of low US tariffs.

He was described as, “Dumber than a sack of bricks,” by Elon Musk during the billionaire’s time in government during the early days of the Trump administration.

Navarro blamed high Indian tariffs for keeping out US products from the country.

“India imposes some of the highest tariffs in the world, along with a dense web of non-tariff barriers that punish American workers and businesses. As a result, the US runs a massive trade deficit with India – nearing $50 billion annually,” wrote Navarro in his article.

Navarro, of course, does not mention that the US continues to buy significant quantities of palladium which is used in electric vehicles, fertilisers and uranium from Russia. Also the European Union (EU) bought LNG worth around $7 billion in 2024 from Russia. In the first half of 2025, the EU purchased about 8 million tonnes from Russia which was down by about 8 per cent from the previous year.

The Trump trade czar also failed to mention that the US itself has bought VGO, used in automobile oils, from India which may have been refined from Russian oil.

Navarro turned his big guns on India’s oil giants saying that, “what really drives this trade is profiteering by India’s Big Oil lobby. Refining companies have turned India into a massive refining hub for discounted Russian crude.”

The US trade czar also attacked Indian purchases of Russian armaments, saying that roughly 36 per cent of India’s imported arms come from Russia. He also raged that India is now buying more Western and US armaments but, “routinely demanded that US companies transfer sensitive military technology and build factories on Indian soil as a condition of sale.”

This is now a standard demand in Indian arms purchases but Navarro claims this reduced America’s profit margins. “That blunts any benefit to reducing America’s trade balance while it also risks transferring cutting-edge US military capabilities to an India now cozying up to both Russia and China.”

Navarro fails to add that India has been attempting to draw closer to Western countries in recent years. Unsurprisingly, he dumps blame on the Biden administration for allowing India to continue to buy Russian arms and keep up links with Russia. “The Biden administration largely looked the other way at this strategic and geopolitical madness. The Trump administration is confronting it.”

What has prompted such a vicious attack on India, which was seen as an ally to the US till quite recently, is not clear.

But the Trump administration has come under fire from its own strategic and defence analyst community.

Even former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice criticised the Trump administration's attitude to India, saying: “Too much of the US approach to India involves coercion rather than partnership.” She added: “India needs a partner that respects its autonomy and invests in its rise. The US needs an ally that shares its long-term interests and democratic DNA.”

On an even stronger note, TV host and columnist Fareed Zakaria asks: “The biggest strategic mistake of President Trump’s second term so far? Trump’s stunning turn against India.”

Zakaria traces how the two countries have been drawing closer for the last 25 years, through the administrations of George Bush Jr, Barack Obama, Trump’s first term followed by the Biden administration.

“A close relationship between Washington and New Delhi would be the key to preventing Chinese domination of Asia and securing American interests in the region,” he adds forcefully.

On a different level, India points out that the US clearly gave the green signal for Indian oil imports from Russia.

A clip has been replayed countless times in recent weeks in which former US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti admits that if India was not importing oil from Russia and then exporting it, there might be a global crude shortage that would send prices soaring.

Navarro brusquely demands that, “If India wants to be treated like a strategic partner of the US, it needs to start acting like one.”

The trade czar has been described as a slightly eccentric advisor with a one-point programme that he has pursued almost throughout his career.

He’s been a professor at the University of California, Irvine and obtained his PhD from Harvard. But he has always had a bee in his bonnet about trade.

The Guardian described him as, “the intellectual driving force behind the global tariffs and trade war with China.”

Where others have fallen by the wayside, Navarro still has his boss’s ear and is an unwavering presence in this administration.

As for the US-India partnership, it’s not clear where that stands now. Trump had been scheduled to visit India for the Quad Summit. But there is no indication whether Trump will attend the summit.

Follow us on:
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT