United States Vice President JD Vance on Sunday told NBC News that President Donald Trump applied “aggressive economic leverage”, including secondary tariffs on India, to restrict Russia’s oil revenues and pressure Moscow to end its war on Ukraine.

He made the remarks during an interview to the American news network while responding to a question on how the US was pressuring Russia to negotiate an end to the conflict.

The comment came amid diplomatic tensions between New Delhi and Washington after the Trump administration on August 6 doubled the tariffs on goods imported from India to 50% for purchasing Russian oil amid the Ukraine war.

A 25% so-called reciprocal tariff has already taken effect, with the secondary tariff of 25% expected to be enforced from Wednesday.

Trump has repeatedly alleged that India’s imports were “fuelling the war machine”.

New Delhi has said that it was “extremely unfortunate” that the US had chosen to impose additional tariffs on India “for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest”.

“We reiterate that these actions are unfair, unjustified and unreasonable,” the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson had said at the time. “India will take all actions necessary to protect its national interests.”

Negotiators from both countries had completed a fifth round of talks in Washington last month. The next round, scheduled for Monday in New Delhi, was abruptly cancelled, Reuters reported.

On Saturday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that Trump’s criticism of India’s trade in Russian oil marked a departure from the earlier position of US officials, who in 2022 had encouraged New Delhi’s purchases to help stabilise global energy prices.

Speaking at The Economic Times World Leaders Forum, Jaishankar said: “This [tariff] is being presented as an oil issue…Same arguments that have been used to target India have not been applied to the largest oil importer, which is China and have not been applied to the largest LNG [liquified natural gas] importer, which are the European nations.”

On August 14, Trump told Fox News Radio that the tariffs imposed on India might have influenced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to meet him. The two leaders held a summit on August 15, which ended without a breakthrough.

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