New Delhi: The US has reacted sharply to the recent bonhomie between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the SCO Summit, with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accusing India of “fuelling the Russian war machine.”

Bessent also downplayed the significance of the Modi’s meetings with Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the SCO summit at a time when the US has imposed a whooping 50 per cent tariffs on Indian imports, including additional tariffs for importing Russian oil.

“It happens every year for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. It’s more of the same. And look, these are bad actors … India is fuelling the Russian war machine, China is fuelling the Russian war machine … I think at a point we and the allies are going to step up,” said Bessent, reported Reuters.

Bessent added that the Trump administration was considering additional sanctions on Russia after its fresh missile and drone attacks killed at least 17 people in Kyiv, including four children.

“At the end of the day, two great countries will get this solved. But the Indians have not been great actors in terms of buying Russian oil and then reselling it, financing the Russian war effort in Ukraine,” said Bessent about India’s relationship with Russia.

On the final day of his China visit, Modi was constantly seen in Putin’s company – clasping hands in the SCO summit hall, chatting for an hour inside a Russian armoured limousine and then sitting down for another hour of formal talks. Later, the two leaders also chatted with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

While Bessent termed India, China and Russia “bad actors”, Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday (September 1) criticised Modi, saying that it was “a shame” to see him “getting in bed with Xi Jinping and Putin”.

'...Needs to be with us and Europe and Ukraine...not Russia'

"It was a shame to see Modi getting in bed - as a leader of the biggest democracy in the world - with the two biggest authoritarians in the world in Putin and Xi Jinping. That doesn’t make any sense. I'm not sure what he's thinking particularly since India has been in a cold war - and sometimes a hot war - with China for decades,” Navarro told reporters on Monday, reported CNN.

“We hope the Indian leader comes around to seeing that he needs to be with us and Europe and Ukraine and not Russia," Navarro added.

Earlier, Navarro had stirred a controversy as he said that “Brahmins” were “profiteering at the expense of the Indian people”.

“I don’t understand why he (Modi) is getting into bed with Putin and Xi Jinping when he’s the biggest democracy in the world. I would just say the Indian people, please, understand what’s going on here. The Brahmins are profiteering at the expense of the Indian people. We need that to stop,” Navarro had said.

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