Trump’s peculiar policy playbook for China, India and Russia

President Donald Trump is following an unusual strategy – establishing Russian President Vladimir Putin, shooting Beijing, turning the screws into a close ally: India.

Although India is one of the oldest nations to negotiate with the Trump administration, there is no sign that the US has signed an agreement with the new Delhi.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent increased the criticism of India on Tuesday, threatening it from cheap Russian oil imports and further increasing tariffs on Indian goods.

“We planned to increase tariffs in India – these are secondary tariffs to buy sanctioned Russian oil.” He said.

At the beginning of this week, White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro condemned the Asian giant’s dependence on Russian oil as a “opportunist” and weakened Russia’s international efforts to isolate the war economy.

“India serves as a global swap for Russian oil, and the embargo gives Moscow to Moscow when it transforms the embargo crude oil into high-valuable exports,” Navarro said in an OP-ED for Financial Times. He said.

Keskin Rhetoric threatens for years to solve the ties between Washington and New Delhi – India says the United States is unjustly targeting it on Russian oil purchases.

“So far, the world is accustomed to the temporary and sometimes contradictory roads,” the world, Professor of East Asia Institute, Professor of East Asia Institute. He said.

India has emerged as the leading buyer of Russian oil, which has been sold in 2022 to Russian exports of Moscow in 2022, in 2022, in 2022.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, it was the second largest buyer of Russian oil importing 1.6 million barrels per day in the first half of this year from 50,000 BPD in 2020. Washington did not put secondary tariffs in China for Russian oil purchases.

India refers to the US administration that wanted to buy Russian oil to keep the markets calmly while pointing to the European Union and even the current trade with Moscow.

The country targeted Washington and said it continued to import uranium hexafloride for the US nuclear industry, Palladium and fertilizers and chemicals from Russia for the electric vehicle industry. Government data showed that the Bilateral trade of Russia in 2024 in 2024 was $ 5.2 billion in 2021 from approximately $ 36 billion in 2021.

Bilateral Trade between New Delhi and Moscow It reached 68.7 billion dollars for the year that ended in March 2025 on March 2025. On the other hand, in 2024, the European Union’s trade with Russia was 67.5 billion euros ($ 78.1 billion), while the service trade in 2023 was 17.2 billion euros. European Commission Data.

“India has been victimized by these pressure tactics that the Trump administration is trying to run by the Trump administration. Trump clearly uses tariffs as a tactic of pressure against Russia.” He said.

Another factor that determines the US approach to India is that Trump’s Modi’s proposal to demand a credit proposal to demand a loan because it plays a role in the Indian-Pakistan ceasefire.

In addition to Trump’s complaints, India’s soybean and Egypt, Kevin Chen Xian An, S. Rajaratnam School of International Research at the School of International Research Assistant, such as American agricultural products such as “Reluctance to lower obstacles”.

Trump’s real agenda has little interest in Washington’s goal of reducing Moscow’s oil revenues, but according to various geopolitical experts, raising leverage from trade partners.

“The inclusive target for the Trump management is to make concessions from countries to find some reasons to fulfill trade taxes in order to finance American citizens’ income of American citizens,” Think-Bank RSIS senior member Drew Thompson said. He said.

“Not based on foreign policy principles [but] Thompson added about the policy of power and the leverage, “he added.

Last week, Trump published a red carpet to greet Putin during his first visit to the United States in about ten years and shared a journey with him at the presidential limousine.

Although the meeting seems to have not produced meaningful steps towards the ceasefire in Ukraine – a goal in which the US has prevented the summit – but Trump He described the meeting as “productive”.

Speaking Following the interviews common news briefingPutin said, “In order to make the conflict solution in Ukraine long -term and permanent, all the main causes of the crisis should be eliminated;

Kirill Dmitriev, one of Putin’s best negotiators, greeted his talks in Washington on Monday as a “an important diplomacy day” and emphasized the opposition of Moscow’s short -term ceasefire agreement with Ukraine.

BCA Research Baş and the US strategist Matt Gert, Trump’s old and latter with a cease -fire agreement to make a trade agreement with a trade agreement to maximize the leverage … India and Russia is trying to pressure through India. Striving, they will ultimately help Republicans will help to increase their expectations in the upcoming elections, he added.

India faces upright tariffs for Russian crude oil purchases, while China, which remained the largest importer of Russian crude oil, survived such taxes. Trump said Last Friday, he did not think of retaliation tariffs in China to buy Russian oil, but he could think within two or three weeks.

China’s Russian oil purchases rose 46% of general exports from Russia According to the US Energy Information Administration, in the first half of this year, in 2022, 34% of Russia’s materials, which imported about 36% of the India was followed.

When China’s role in Russian oil purchases, Bessent claimed that Beijing’s imports were less terrible in the eyes of Trump administration, because Russia became a great buyer even before invading Ukraine.

Stephen Olson, a senior visitor at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, said that being soft in China, Trump’s Chinese President Xi Jinping, said the desire to conclude a potential high profile summit and a permanent trade agreement in the coming months.

Olson added that the secondary tariffs in India can be designed as “a shot in Russia” to show that if Russia is not more compatible, it can increase the pressure by extending China -like tariffs.

Following the increasing tensions, Beijing and Washington agreed to suspend heavy tasks and relax several punishing measures in April, because both sides continued to work to make a durable agreement.

Beijing benefited from the dominance of rare soil minerals, which are very important for military and industrial use in the negotiations with Washington, and provided strict control over the exports of critical minerals.

The relationship with China is complex and the Trump administration has not yet emerged with a clear, consistent policy against China. Sometimes it seems to want to compete economically with China. It seems to want to reach a kind of understanding or a grief at other times. “