US President Donald Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, has strongly criticised India’s trade relations with Russia and China after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in China.

Navarro, who has repeatedly attacked India’s policies on tariffs and oil trade, described Modi’s meeting with the two leaders as a wrong move and claimed that India’s oil purchases from Russia were helping fund the war in Ukraine.

Navarro’s sharp criticism

Peter Navarro did not hold back in his words, saying, “It is a shame to see [PM] Modi getting in bed with Xi Jinping and Putin. I'm not sure what he's thinking. We hope he comes around to seeing that he needs to be with us and not Russia.”

His comments came just a day after Prime Minister Modi visited China, where he attended the SCO summit and interacted with Putin and Xi.

Navarro also repeated his old criticism of India’s high tariff rates, calling the country the “Maharaja of tariffs.” He argued that New Delhi’s tariff structure was among the highest in the world and was unfair to other economies. "There's a two-pronged problem with India... Twenty-five per cent is reciprocal, because of unfair trade, and the other 25 per cent is because India is buying oil from Russia,” Navarro said.

He further accused India of ignoring the truth about Russian oil imports. “They are in denial about that... They try to tell everybody that it's not true, and it is demonstrably true.”

Accusations of oil profiteering

Navarro went even further by making controversial remarks about India’s caste system. He claimed that “Brahmins are profiteering at the expense of ordinary Indians” through the purchase of discounted Russian oil. He also called India a “laundromat for the Kremlin”, accusing Indian refiners of buying cheap Russian crude, processing it, and exporting it at higher prices.

“It kills Ukrainians... And what do we have to do as taxpayers? We've got to send them more money,” Navarro said, arguing that India’s actions were indirectly harming Ukraine and forcing the US to increase its financial support.

Navarro defended the Trump administration’s tariffs on Indian goods, saying that New Delhi’s ties with Moscow and Beijing were undermining global stability.

India’s response

India, however, has firmly defended its oil trade with Russia. New Delhi has said that buying discounted oil is necessary to keep energy prices stable in the domestic market. Indian officials have also described US tariffs on Indian goods as “unjustified”.

India’s dependence on Russian oil is relatively recent. Before 2022, New Delhi largely imported crude from the Middle East. However, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the introduction of a $60-per-barrel price cap by the G7 nations, India began purchasing discounted Russian oil.

US officials themselves have acknowledged that India’s ability to buy such cargoes was a result of this global price cap mechanism, which was meant to reduce Moscow’s revenue but ensure global supply.

Even so, Navarro’s remarks show that trade ties between Washington and New Delhi continue to face serious challenges under Trump’s leadership.

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