"People fear what would happen to them if someone else grows bigger. Where will they be if India grows? So, they imposed a tariff," Bhagwat said, without naming any country.
The White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has again attacked India, targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in China on Monday.
"The Indians are so arrogant about this. They say, oh, we don't have higher tariffs. Oh, it's our sovereignty. We can buy oil from anyone we want. India, you're the biggest democracy in the world. Okay? Act like one. Side with the democracies," he said in the interview.
"India must take Trump's point over Russian oil seriously, and work with the White House to find a solution. The sooner the better. Decades of friendship and good will between the world's two largest democracies provide a solid basis to move past the current turbulence. Navigating issues
US President Donald Trump on Friday (local time) said that he is going to take a "very important decision" in the next two weeks on Russia-Ukraine war, suggesting that he might impose "massive sanctions or tariffs" on Kremlin or tell Kyiv that it's not Washington's war.
Alleging that India has been acting as a "laundromat for the Kremlin," Peter Novarro said India's purchase is allowing Russia to fund its war efforts in Ukraine, while New Delhi is reaping profit from the transactions.
Despite sharp criticism for purchasing Russian oil, White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro on Thursday (local time) praised India's leadership and highlighted its key role in bringing the Ukraine-Russia conflict to an end.
This marks the second such incident where the Russian side openly displayed its Soviet nostalgia. A day before the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was seen wearing a white sweatshirt with "CCCP" -- the abbreviation for the USSR in Russian.
In an interview with CNBC, Bessent said, "Before the war in Ukraine, less than 1% of India's oil came from Russia. Now it is 42%. The system is allowing India to profiteer by buying cheap Russian oil, reselling it, and pocketing $16B in excess profits. This opportunistic arbitrage is unaccep