Washington/New Delhi: In a fresh trade threat against India, President Donald Trump on Monday said he will "substantially" raise US tariffs on New Delhi, accusing it of buying massive amounts of Russian oil and selling it for big profits. Last week, the Trump administration slapped a 25 per cent duty on all Indian goods. The US President also announced a penalty for buying "vast majority" of Russian military equipment and crude oil, but no mention was made in the notification.

"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," Trump said in a social media post on Monday. "They don't care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine. Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA," he added.

In its reaction, India said it will take all necessary steps to safeguard and promote national interest and that the implications of the tariffs are being examined. India's import of crude oil from Russia has risen from 0.2 per cent of total purchases before the Russia-Ukraine war to 35-40 per cent. New Delhi is the largest buyer of Russian oil after China.

On August 1, Trump signed an Executive Order titled 'Further Modifying The Reciprocal Tariff Rates', raising tariffs for over five dozen countries, including a steep 25 per cent for India.

The executive order, however, did not mention the “penalty” that Trump had said India will have to pay because of its purchases of Russian military equipment and energy. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, in an interview to Fox News Sunday, stated that President Trump has said very clearly that “it is not acceptable for India to continue financing" the Ukraine war by purchasing oil from Russia.

Last week, Trump mounted a sharp attack on India and Russia for their close ties and said the two countries can take their "dead economies down together", a remark which prompted New Delhi to say that India is the world's fastest-growing major economy. Declaring that the US has a massive trade deficit with India, Trump had said that while “India is our friend, we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their tariffs are far too high, among the highest in the world, and they have the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary Trade Barriers of any country.