New York, Aug. 28 — The Ukraine conflict is no longer just “Putin’s war,” according to Peter Navarro. It is, in his words, “Modi’s war.”
Navarro, who served as President Donald Trump’s senior adviser on trade and manufacturing, accused India of bankrolling Moscow through discounted oil purchases and called on New Delhi to halt energy deals with Russia if it wants relief from mounting U.S. tariffs, reported by GK News.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Navarro argued that “the road to peace runs, in part, right through New Delhi.” He claimed that Indian refiners are buying cheap Russian crude and reselling it at a premium on global markets—profits, he said, that feed Vladimir Putin’s war chest.
“Everybody in America loses because of what India is doing,” Navarro said, adding that high Indian tariffs already cost U.S. workers jobs, factories, and higher wages. “Then the taxpayers lose, because we’ve got to fund Modi’s war.”
When pressed on whether he meant “Putin’s war,” Navarro doubled down: “I mean Modi’s war.”
The Trump administration this week imposed an additional 25 percent duty on Indian imports, raising the total tariff burden to 50 percent. Navarro suggested the penalty could be lifted overnight if India curtails Russian oil purchases. “India can get 25 percent off tomorrow if it stops buying Russian oil and helping to feed their war machine,” he said.
Navarro called Prime Minister Narendra Modi “a great leader” but said he was baffled that the world’s largest democracy insists it has fair tariffs while refusing to scale back Russian oil deals. “This is a mature democracy with intelligent people running it,” he remarked. “Now, what does that mean?”
India has denounced the tariffs as “unjustified and unreasonable,” insisting that, like any major economy, it will act to safeguard its national interests.
Navarro argued that both India and China must be stopped from purchasing Russian energy, claiming that a coordinated embargo would quickly starve Moscow of war funding. “You do that tomorrow, and the war is over,” he declared.
Not all in Washington agree with Navarro’s approach. The House Foreign Affairs Committee criticized the tariffs, warning that Trump’s policy risks damaging U.S.-India ties while sparing larger buyers of Russian crude. “It’s almost like it’s not about Ukraine at all,” the committee said in a statement.
