White House trade adviser Peter Navarro says India’s purchases of Russian crude oil are funding Moscow’s war in Ukraine and have to stop, as Washington ramps up pressure on New Delhi to cut off its energy imports from Russia.

“India acts as a global clearinghouse for Russian oil, converting embargoed crude into high-value exports while giving Moscow the dollars it needs,” Navarro wrote in an opinion piece published in the Financial Times on Monday.

He added that India’s dependence on Russian crude is “opportunistic and deeply corrosive of the world’s efforts to isolate Putin’s war economy”.

In the beginning of this month, United States President Donald Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on Indian goods over the issue, straining US-India ties.

In a speech on the occasion of India’s Ind

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