The US President has claimed he rejected an offer of zero tariffs from the South Asian nation over its purchases of Russian oil

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he will "substantially" raise tariffs on imports from India over the next 24 hours because of the South Asian's continued purchases of Russian crude.

The latest threat comes a day after India rejected US and EU criticism over its oil trade with Russia saying it would take measures to "safeguard its national interests and economic security," while adding that the targeting of the South Asian nation was unreasonable.

Calling India the "highest tariff nation," the US President told CNBC Squawk Box in a phone interview that India has not been a good trading partner.

"They do a lot of business with us but we don't do with them. So, we settled on 25% but am going to raise them substantially in the next 24 hours because they're buying Russian oil and they're fueling the war machine," Trump said in the interview.

In the 2024-25 fiscal year, bilateral trade between India and the US reached $131.8 billion, with a trade surplus of $41.18 billion for New Delhi, according to the Indian government.

Trump also claimed in his Tuesday interview that New Delhi has offered to entirely waive tariffs on US imports.

"Now I will say this, India went from the highest tariffs ever, they will give us zero tariffs. But that's not good enough, because of what they're doing with oil," he said.

Although the US President maintains that India is a friend, he has recently made a string of statements that are critical of New Delhi. On Monday, he said India was making "big profits" by selling Russian oil in the open market. "They don't care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian war machine," he said in a Truth Social Post on Monday.

(RT.com)