Amid US President
Donald Trump's threats to hike tariffs on goods from India over New Delhi buying Russian oil and India's pushback, saying the move was unjustified and vowing to protect national interest, an earlier statement by former US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, has highlighted a contradictory position within the US administration.
In a video from last year, now widely shared on social media, Garcetti admits that it was the US that had, in fact, encouraged India to purchase oil from Russia to stabilise global oil prices. "They bought Russian oil because we wanted somebody to buy Russian oil at a price cap. That was not a violation or anything. It was actually the design of the policy because, as a commodity, we didn’t want the oil prices going up, and they fulfilled that," Garcetti said at an event last year, while he was serving as the ambassador to India.
India on Monday mounted a sharp counterattack on the US and the European Union for their "unjustified and unreasonable" targeting of New Delhi for its procurement of Russian crude oil.
Firmly rejecting the criticism, the ministry of external affairs pointed out the continuing trade relations the US and the European Union have with Russia.
External affairs ministry's response came hours after US President Donald Trump asserted that Washington will substantially raise tariffs on goods from India over its energy ties with Russia.
Earlier, Trump said his administration will substantially raise tariffs on India.
"India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian oil, they are then, for much of the oil purchased, selling it on the open market for big profits," he said in a social media post.
"They don't care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine," he said.
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