New York: US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the oil tariff on India was a “big blow” to Russia, making its President Vladimir Putin pliable to seeking an end to the war with Ukraine.
With Russia’s economy already “not doing well” due to the war, Trump said that their largest or second-largest oil buyer has been put under a 50 per cent tariff.
“I was all set to do things far bigger than that, but I got a call that they’d like to meet”, he said.
Trump imposed a 25 per cent punitive tariff last week on India for buying Russian oil on top of the 25 per cent tariff he had set earlier in his trade war.
Trump is set to meet Putin in Alaska on Friday to explore an end to the Ukraine War after the Russian leader had defied his attempts since taking office in January.
“I’m going to see what they want to like to see in a ceasefire. I’d like to see the best deal that could be made for both parties,” said Trump.
Trump said that ultimately, he wants Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, talk to each other directly.
Trump made the assertions while speaking to reporters at the White House after signing an executive order bringing the crime-ravaged capital’s law and order under federal control.
Making his muddled claim, Trump said that the ability to impose higher tariffs has “given us not only the money it’s bringing — it’s trillions of dollars of money — but it gives us great power over enemies.”
“We solved five wars [including] Pakistan and India,” he said, going on to list others, including the peace deal signed by Azerbaijan and Armenia last week in his presence.
He claimed on Truth Social that he made a trade deal with Pakistan on July 30, but neither side gave full details of the deal. Trump imposed a 19 per cent tariff on Pakistan the next day.
New Delhi has said that tariffs had not figured in conversations with the US during Operation Sindoor, and the US had no role in ending the anti-terror operation.
India said the Operation Sindoor ended when Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations, Major General Kashif Abdullah, called his Indian counterpart, Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, and asked for a ceasefire
With the temporary trade truce with China set to end on Tuesday, Trump said, “We’ll see what happens. We’ve been dealing very nicely with China”.
“They have tremendous tariffs that they’re paying to the United States of America. The relationship is very good with President Xi Jinping and myself,” he added.
(IANS)
