'Don't burn ties with India': Nikki Haley accuses Trump of favouring China while threatening Delhi over Russian oil

US former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley - File Photo

In a sharp rebuke to US President Donald Trump’s rhetoric against India and his threat to raise US tariffs on New Delhi for buying Russian oil, Republican leader and former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has called out what she sees as a dangerous double standard in Washington’s approach.

“India should not be buying oil from Russia,” Haley wrote on X, “but China, an adversary and the number one buyer of Russian and Iranian oil, got a 90-day tariff pause. Don’t give China a pass and burn a relationship with a strong ally like India.”

India should not be buying oil from Russia. But China, an adversary and the number one buyer of Russian and Iranian oil, got a 90-day tariff pause. Don’t give China a pass and burn a relationship with a strong ally like India.

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— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) August 5, 2025

Nikki Haley’s comments came after Donald Trump warned he would “very substantially” raise tariffs on Indian goods within 24 hours, blaming India’s continued imports of Russian crude. Speaking to CNBC, Trump claimed the US does “little business with India” while India does “a lot of business with us.”

Earlier, on his platform Truth Social, Trump accused India of buying large amounts of Russian oil and reselling it for profit, despite the ongoing Ukraine war.

On Monday,  India mounted an unusually sharp counterattack on the US and the European Union for their "unjustified and unreasonable" targeting of New Delhi for its procurement of Russian crude oil.

Firmly rejecting the criticism, India pointed out the double standards in targeting it on the issue and said both the US and the EU are continuing their trade relations with Russia.

"Unlike our case, such trade is not even a vital national compulsion," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.

The Europe-Russia trade includes not just energy, but also fertilisers, mining products, chemicals, iron and steel, and machinery and transport equipment, the MEA said.

"Where the US is concerned, it continues to import from Russia uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for its EV industry, fertilisers as well as chemicals," it added.

"In this background, the targeting of India is unjustified and unreasonable. Like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security," the MEA said.

On August 1, Trump signed an Executive Order titled 'Further Modifying The Reciprocal Tariff Rates’, raising tariffs for over five dozen countries, including a steep 25 per cent for India.

The executive order, however, did not mention the “penalty” that Trump had said India will have to pay because of its purchases of Russian military equipment and energy.