India seeks rapprochement with China amid tensions with US over tariffs
India, whose relations with the US have been strained due to Russian oil imports and customs duties, is sending a message of partnership with China with an emphasis on strategic autonomy.
- Published September 5, 2025, 8:00 PM
India is accelerating cooperation in relations with China as it attempts to balance escalating tensions with the US over Russian oil and trade tariffs with its "strategic autonomy" policy.
India, which increased its energy supplies from Moscow following the Ukraine-Russia war, continued to purchase discounted Russian oil despite pressure from Washington. High tariffs imposed by the US have escalated tensions in bilateral relations, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China has drawn attention.
According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Europe's share of Russia's total oil exports fell to 11 percent after the war, while the share of Asian and Oceanian countries rose to 81 percent. During this period, India's share of Russian oil in total imports rose from 1 percent before the war to 36 percent after the war.
While Russia's crude oil and condensate exports averaged 5 million barrels per day in the 2020-2024 period, this figure decreased to 4.3 million barrels per day in the first half of 2025.
Taxes failed to push India back
US President Donald Trump imposed a 50 percent tax in August on goods such as textiles, jewellery and shrimp, which play a significant role in India's trade with the US after India refused to halt its imports of Russian crude oil.
According to data shared by the United States, the goods and services trade between the two countries will be $212.3 billion in 2024, while goods trade constituted $128.9 billion of the total trade.
In this context, US exports to India were recorded at $41.5 billion, while India's exports to the US were recorded at $87.3 billion. Trump's tariffs are estimated to reduce India's exports to the US by approximately 40-43 percent, resulting in losses of approximately $35 billion to $38 billion for the Indian economy.
India says, "We did not violate international norms"
Peter Navarro, Trump's senior advisor on trade and production, told the US press over the weekend that Russia sold crude oil to India at discounted prices after the embargoes, and that India refined this crude oil and exported it to European, African and Asian countries, making huge profits.
Navarro accused India of feeding the “Russian war machine” with these moves and the Indian government of putting its own interests ahead of the interests of the people.
Trump, in his social media post yesterday, stated that his country was running a trade deficit in India-US trade relations and described the bilateral trade relations as a "one-sided disaster".
India's Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, responded to Navarro's accusations by telling Indian media on Monday that his country had not violated international rules.
Arguing that India’s oil imports from Russia are compatible with the G-7’s price ceiling mechanism and stabilize international markets, Puri said, “The truth is that there is no one who can replace the world’s second oil producer, which supplies about 10 percent of the world’s oil supply.”
Puri alleged that the US administration was ignoring this fact.
India defends its refusal to back down from the tariff barrier against the US by arguing for strategic autonomy. This autonomy conception states that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to maximize the benefits for his country by keeping all options open against China and the US.
India is getting closer to China amid tensions with the US
The tensions in Indo-US relations have also affected the communication between the two leaders. Media reports indicated that Modi did not answer Trump's repeated calls. Modi, who did not answer Trump's calls, attended the 25th Shanghai Cooperation Organization Council of Heads of State Summit in Tianjin, China.
Modi, who visited China for the first time in seven years due to tensions on the border issues between the two countries, emphasized during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping that India and China are "partners, not rivals."
Emphasizing that the understanding between the two countries far outweighs their disagreements, Modi stated that India is ready to evaluate and develop bilateral relations from a long-term perspective.
During Modi's visit, important agreements were signed in various areas such as transportation, visa, border security, trade and other areas.
Moscow is New Delhi's "strategic oil supplier"
Oslo University faculty member Francesco Sassi told Anadolu Agency (AA) that India's summer crude oil imports from Russia reached their usual annual peak of 2.1 million barrels per day in June and averaged 1.8 million barrels per day in the first half of 2025.
"This figure is significantly higher than all of Russia's other competitors in the Indian market. The data also clearly demonstrates Moscow's strategic importance as an oil supplier to New Delhi and India's reluctance to comply with US demands to phase out Russian oil imports," Sassi said.
AA
petroturk
