The website of the Russian television station (RT) said on the 22nd that the EU and the United States failed to agree on the implementation of second-tier sanctions on Chinese and Indian purchases of Russian oil.
In response to the U.S. demand the EU to impose 100% tariffs on India and China, the European Commission President von der Leyen said on the 21st in an interview with the Belgian "The Evening News" and other media that the EU will "take its own decision". this requirement is related to the U.S. President Trump wants to increase pressure on Russia, so that the latter ends the war on Ukraine, in order to pressure, the EU has submitted the 19th round of sanctions against Russia.
Von der Leyen said that in an increasingly complex geopolitical environment, the EU must strengthen partnerships based on common interests.Given India’s increasingly important role in security in the Indo-Pacific region, closer cooperation between the EU and India is “more important than ever.”
RT said that von der Leyen's words showed that the EU actually rejected the US request for the EU to impose tariffs on Indian purchases of Russian oil. In addition, despite pressure from the United States, the EU is unlikely to completely get rid of its energy dependence on Russia in the short term. The Wall Street Journal said that the EU will not use tariffs as sanctions against other countries.
According to France Radio International, Trump again urged European countries to stop buying Russian oil on 20 November and demanded that the United States put more pressure on Russia to stop the war on Ukraine.He also asked U.S. permanent representative at NATO Whitec to increase pressure on Europe, saying Europe "must stop buying oil from Russia".In addition, Trump again expressed his dissatisfaction with Russian President Putin and said that if oil prices were "a little lower" the Russian conflict would end.
According to reports, Trump has repeatedly accused European countries of buying Russian energy. After meeting with British Prime Minister Starmer on the 18th, he expressed his willingness to increase economic pressure on Russia. Although most European countries have stopped directly purchasing Russian oil since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, countries such as Hungary and Slovakia are still importing Russian oil. European countries also import diesel from countries such as India and Turkey, which process Russian oil into fuel. The report also mentioned that the European Union has announced that it will ban the import of petroleum products refined from Russian oil from next year. The European Commission also proposed to ban the import of Russian liquefied natural gas before January 1, 2027, one year earlier than originally planned.
RT said that if the EU imposes tariffs on India and others, it will lead to further deterioration of the European economic situation and heavy losses, so the EU is not in a hurry to listen to the United States on this issue. In addition, the EU does not want to alienate India, and the current actions of the United States towards India have even overturned its overall policy towards India in the past 20 years. The US "Political News Network" previously stated that despite the pressure from the United States on the EU to speed up getting rid of Russian energy, the EU is unlikely to fully achieve its goal by 2027. The main reason is that Hungary and Slovakia do not support sanctions against Russia and continue to import energy from Russia.
According to RT reports, Russia has repeatedly condemned Western economic pressure on energy and other aspects. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov recently said that Western attempts to isolate Russia, including demanding to abandon Russian energy, undermined global economic development. Despite U.S. pressure, Brazil, India, etc. did not give up Russian energy. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in June that the rejection of Russian natural gas has caused the EU countries to lose about 200 billion euros.
Modi said in a public speech on Monday that “many of the products we use every day are made abroad”, “we need to get rid of their dependence on them and instead buy products made in India.” But Modi did not specifically specify which country. The report said that after the U.S. total tariff rate on printing reached 50%, Modi has been calling on people to use “Made in India” products, and its supporters have launched a campaign to resist U.S. brands. India has a population of 1.4 billion and is one of the main markets for U.S. consumer goods. Modi also called for to focus on selling “Made in India” products, and believes that this will promote India’s economic growth.
India's Commerce Minister Goyal is about to visit Washington to hold trade talks with the United States to ease tensions between the two countries.
According to Bloomberg, despite the resumption of trade talks between India and the US, India has not planned to give up Russian oil, and it is expected that purchases in November and December will remain active. Trump said on November 16 that he had had a "great" call with Modi. It is that the move was intended to ease tensions between the two major economies of India due to tariffs and India's purchase of Russian oil. But after the call, analysts were cautiously optimistic about Indian-American relations. There were analysts who said that this was Trump's typical "carrot barrel" strategy. The call indicated that the situation had clearly eased, but should not be over-interpreted. India has put all the cards on the table, and now is to see how the United States responded.