For years, India has balanced close partnerships with both Washington and Moscow, even throughout Ukraine war. Trump is finally demanding it picks a side

India buys about 90 per cent of its crude oil from overseas and has been the biggest market for Russian seaborne crude since 2023, according to ship tracking data compiled by Kpler. India imports about 5mn barrels of oil a day, of which 2mn come from Russia.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would increase the tariff charged on imports from India from the current rate of 25% "very substantially" over the next 24 hours, in view of New Delhi's continued purchases of Russian oil.