US disappointed by India's Russian oil imports, hopes to improve ties: Trump adviser

Washington, DC [US], September 5 : White House Economic Advisor Kevin Hassett has said that US President Donald Trump and the trade team are "disappointed" with India's continued imports of Russian crude oil, but hoped for positive developments.

"I think that the trade team and the President are disappointed that India continues to fund Russia's Ukraine war...Hopefully, it's a democratic issue, and we'll have positive developments," Hassett said answering a question fromduring a media interaction.

Answering a query on Donald Trump's post today concerning India, Russia and China Kevin said: "Well, we're certainly hoping that it improves".

"Looks like we've lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!" Trump wrote in a post on X.

The US has accused India of profiteering from Russian oil, while Indian officials have said that the country is being singled out when EU buys Russian gas. China is the biggest importer of Russian oil.

The 50 per cent tariffs imposed by the US on Indian goods came into effect on September 27. The US President imposed 25 per cent tariffs on India last month amid trade talks between two countries and then imposed an additional 25 per cent on India as penalty for buying oil from Russia.

Following the US decision, Ministry of External Affairs had said that "targeting of India is unjustified and unreasonable" and like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security.

The MEA statement issued last month noted that the European Union in 2024 had a bilateral trade of Euro 67.5 billion in goods with Russia. In addition, it had trade in services estimated at Euro 17.2 billion in 2023. This is significantly more than India's total trade with Russia that year or subsequently. European imports of LNG in 2024, in fact, reached a record 16.5mn tonnes, surpassing the last record of 15.21mn tonnes in 2022.

It said Europe-Russia trade includes not just energy, but also fertilizers, mining products, chemicals, iron and steel and machinery and transport equipment.

Where the United States is concerned, it continues to import from Russia uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for its EV industry, fertilizers as well as chemicals, the MEA statement said.

During his media interaction, Hassett also highlighted that semiconductor tariff proposals will be presented to Trump within weeks, with potential exemptions for companies that invest in the US.

Hassett called Friday's new jobs report number "disappointing," but expressed optimism about the US economy's future, citing strong capital spending and construction growth.

"I expect it's going to revise up. President Trump knows that we're super optimistic about the future of the jobs numbers because we're seeing a massive blowout in capital spending and new factory and construction, something that can happen because of the tax reforms that we had. Capital spending is growing at a rate of just about 8% per cent over the first half of year. It's accelerating to the third quarter, which is why GDP now has a third quarter at about three per cent. And so, like all the indicators that we're seeing are that inflation is low and economic growth is solid," he said.

"Income growth is solid as well. So that the only part of the data that's disappointing is that the job numbers have been a little bit lower over the last three or four months," he added.

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