Trump Warns of ‘Phase 2 and 3 of Sanctions Against India’ Over Russian Oil Trade

New Delhi: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday (September 3) said he was yet to implement the second and third phases of sanctions against India, adding that India would have “big problems” if it continued to buy Russian oil.

The statement came during an interaction with the media in the Oval Office, where a Polish journalist asked Trump why he had expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin but not taken any action against him.

Trump, referring to the sanctions against India, said, “That [sanctions] cost hundreds of billions of dollars to Russia, you call that no action? Then I have not done Phase-2 yet or Phase-3... Two weeks ago, I said if India buys, India [will have] big problems, and that's what happens.”

“But when you say there’s no action, I think you ought to get yourself a new job,” Trump retorted.

Trump also spoke about the SCO summit on Wednesday after the US’s sharp remarks earlier this week on India, China and Russia coming together at the meet. “When they did what they did, I thought it was a beautiful ceremony, it was very impressive, but I understood the reason they were doing it, they were hoping I was watching, and I was watching. My relationship with all of them is very good, and we are going to find out how good it is over the next week or two,” he said.

“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,” Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro had said on Monday.

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