New Delhi: Trump aide Peter Navarro on Thursday (August 21) accused India of acting as a “laundromat for the Kremlin” and “cozying up to Xi Jinping”, warning that new US tariffs on Indian goods would take effect on August 27.“Just six days from now, you see – I see that [the imposition of secondary tariffs on August 27] taking place. India doesn’t appear to want to recognise its role in the bloodshed. It simply doesn’t. It’s cozying up to Xi Jinping, that’s what it’s doing,” Navarro, a White House trade adviser, told reporters in Washington on Thursday.Earlier in the day in Moscow, external affairs minister S Jaishankar had expressed puzzlement at the American move.“We are very perplexed at the logic of the argument,” he said, noting that China, not India, was the largest buyer of Russian oil, while Europe was the biggest importer of Russian LNG.He added that Washington itself had encouraged India to buy Russian crude to stabilise energy markets, and pointed out that Indian imports of US oil had also been rising.Navarro, however, rejected India’s reasoning. “They don’t need the oil. It’s a refining profiteering scheme. It’s a laundromat for the Kremlin. That’s the reality of that,” he said.He added that before the Ukraine war, India imported “virtually no Russian oil … like 1% of their needs,” but that figure had since climbed to “30% or 35%.”“The argument now … that they somehow need Russian oil to cool their homes or cook or drive their cars, is nonsense,” he said.Navarro alleged that Indian refiners were buying discounted Russian crude, processing it and selling fuel at premium prices overseas. “It’s strictly profiteering – profiteering by the Indian refining industry, Big Oil,” he said.Linking the tariffs to the US economy, Navarro stated: “When you think about the tariffs we’re putting in place – 25% because they cheat us on trade, 25% because of the Russian oil – I ask you this: what is the net impact on Americans?”He described India’s barriers as “higher tariffs, Maharaja tariffs, higher non-tariff barriers”, arguing that they contributed to a “massive” US trade deficit that “hurts American workers” and “hurts American businesses”.“Then they use the money they get from us, when they sell us stuff, to buy Russian oil, which is processed by refiners, and they make a bunch of money there. But then the Russians use the money to build more arms and kill Ukrainians, and so American taxpayers have to provide more aid, military style, to the Ukrainians. That’s insane,” Navarro said.He said he wrote his recent Financial Times article “to deal with the propaganda of the Indian government”, which he said was designed to “make people want to feel sorry for them: ‘Oh, they need the oil.’ They don’t need the oil.”Navarro said President Donald Trump “sees that chessboard beautifully” and argued that “in many ways, the road to peace runs through New Delhi”.Despite his criticism, Navarro stressed, “I love India. Look, Modi’s a great leader. But please, please, India – look at what your role here is in the global economy. What you’re doing right now is not creating peace, it’s perpetuating the war.”