India finds itself caught in the crossfire for its oil imports from Russia. While it is not the only country to do so, India is facing a crushing 50 percent tariff from the United States on its goods. American Vice President JD Vance has now openly acknowledged President Donald Trump’s move. During an exclusive interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press, he said that the imposition of punitive tariffs on India is aimed at squeezing Russia by punishing New Delhi.
“Trump has applied aggressive economic leverage, for example, secondary tariffs on India, to try to make it harder for the Russians to get rich from their oil economy,” Vance said. The American Vice President was confident that the United States could broker an end to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Expressing optimism over the US’s role in fostering peace, Vance further stated, “We believe we’ve already seen some significant concessions from both sides, just in the last few weeks.” He also offered his assessment of the Trump administration’s tougher posture towards Moscow.
JD Vance emphasized that the US wants to stop the killing in Ukraine. “The Russians have done a lot of things that we don’t like. A lot of civilians have died. We’ve condemned that stuff from the get-go, and, frankly, President Trump has done more to apply pressure and to apply economic leverage to the Russians, certainly, than Joe Biden did for 3 ½ years, when he did nothing but talk, did nothing to bring the killing to a stop. So you asked me what I’m enraged by? What I’m enraged by is the continuation of the war,” NBC quoted Vance as saying.
The relationship between India and the United States has deteriorated since the Trump administration targeted New Delhi over discounted energy imports from Russia. Donald Trump announced that Washington will increase tariffs on Indian goods to 50% and slap an additional 25% duty as punishment for buying Russian crude oil.
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