India seeks closer ties with China as tensions with US rise over tariffs

ANKARA

India is moving to deepen engagement with China as trade tensions rise with the US, which has imposed steep tariffs on Indian exports while pressing New Delhi to cut purchases of Russian oil.

Europe’s share of Russia’s oil exports dropped to 11% after the war in Ukraine, while Asian and Oceanic countries’ share climbed to 81%, US Energy Information Administration data show. India’s Russian oil imports have surged from 1% of its total imports to 36% since the war.

Russia’s crude and condensate exports averaged 5 million barrels per day in 2020–24 but slid to 4.3 million in the first half of 2025.

In August, US President Donald Trump levied a 50% tariff on Indian textiles, jewelry, and shrimp — key trade items — as part of efforts to rebalance bilateral trade.

US goods and services trade with India totaled $212.3 billion in 2024, with US exports at $41.5 billion and imports from India at $87.3 billion. Washington estimates the tariffs could cost the Indian economy $35–38 billion.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro accused India of refining discounted Russian oil and re-exporting it to European, African and Asian countries for profit, saying: “India’s oil lobby is funding Putin’s war machine,” according to the Financial Times.

Trump also criticized the trade relationship between the US and India, calling it a “total one-sided disaster.”

“What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us,” he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

- Energy partners

India’s summer crude oil imports from Russia peaked at 2.1 million barrels per day in June and averaged 1.8 million in the first half of 2025, assistant professor Francesco Sassi from the University of Oslo told Anadolu, noting the scale far outpaces other suppliers.

Sassi said the figures highlight Moscow’s strategic role as an energy partner for New Delhi and India’s unwillingness to comply with US demands to end Russian imports.

Indian Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said Monday that India has “not broken any rules” and is not “profiteering” from Russian oil, according to an Indian newspaper.

"The larger truth is this — there is no substitute for the world's second largest producer supplying nearly 10% of global oil," he added, noting that India's oil imports from Russia are compatible with G-7/EU price cap system and it stabilizes the market "from spiraling."

As frictions with Washington intensified, reports said Prime Minister Narendra Modi ignored Trump’s repeated phone calls and instead traveled to Tianjin, northern China, to attend the 25th Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit — his first visit to China in seven years due to tensions between the two countries over border issues.

Chinese President Xi Jinping told Modi that Beijing and New Delhi are partners and not rivals. Modi said India is ready to advance bilateral relations between the two countries.

The two sides signed agreements on transportation, visas, border security, and trade during Modi’s visit.