US President Donald Trump has said that America’s high tariffs on India for buying Russian oil have badly hurt Russia’s economy. Speaking from the White House on Monday, Trump claimed that Moscow’s economic performance has been disrupted by global pressures and by US tariffs on several countries, including India.

“I think Russia has to get back into building their country. It’s a massive country... They have tremendous potential in Russia to do well. They’re not doing well. Their economy is not doing well right now because it’s been very well disturbed by this,” Trump said.

Tariffs target India’s Russian oil imports

Trump explained that the United States has placed a 25 per cent tariff on India’s trade, along with an extra 25 per cent duty on its imports of Russian oil. This makes a total of 50 per cent tariffs. According to him, this has directly affected Russia because India is one of its biggest oil buyers.

“Doesn’t help when the President of the United States tells their largest or second-largest oil buyer that we’re putting a 50 per cent tariff on you if you buy oil from Russia. That was a big blow,” Trump said, clearly referring to India.

He added, “No one else would have been so tough, and I haven’t stopped there.” These comments came only days after Trump called the economies of both New Delhi and Moscow “dead economies”.

Trump also claimed that his tariff policies have helped the US not only earn more money but also solve major conflicts. “The tariffs have helped; it gives us not only the money, but it also gives us great power over enemies. We solved five wars between Pakistan and India. Azerbaijan and Armenia – it was raging for 37 years, and the two leaders got up, and they said, 'We never thought this would be solved.' Russia tried to solve it. They all tried to solve it. It was a very tough situation, but we got it done,” he said.

On future US-Russia relations and Ukraine war

When asked whether the US and Russia could return to normal trade relations, Trump said it was possible, but only if Russia ended its wars.

“Russia has a very valuable piece of land. If Vladimir Putin would go toward business instead of toward war, you know, it’s a warring nation. That’s what they do. They fight a lot of wars. A friend of mine said Russia is tough because they just keep on fighting. They beat Hitler. So did we,” Trump said.

On the possibility of ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Trump said, “Well, we’re going to have a meeting with Vladimir Putin. And at the end of that meeting, probably in the first two minutes, I’ll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made.”

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