President Donald Trump faces a deadline Sunday to decide whether to impose certain penalties on other countries under a bipartisan sanctions law he signed last month.
Any move by him to waive sanctions on Russian individuals or entities will be met with criticism, as would a decision not to impose tariffs on China for buying Russian gas. But Washington is hoping he’ll spare at least one country: India.
“Both the United States and India should not buy Russian oil and gas, but I don’t think simply imposing big tariffs on India is the way to get them to” reduce their purchases, said Richard Fontaine, CEO of the Center for a New American Security.
Punishing India for its reliance on Russian energy “would deal a body blow to the US-India relationship,” argued Sadanand Dhume, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
The US and India are currently locked in trade negotiations, which more tariffs would surely disrupt. Fontaine said it is “100%” possible that the Trump administration uses the sanctions law to pressure India to give in to its demands in those discussions. Trump had previously hiked tariffs on India over its Russian energy purchases, but later removed them as trade talks progressed.
Asked whether Trump had made a decision on which sanctions, if any, to impose at the deadline, a White House official said that he “signed the act and the administration will comply with the act’s requirements.” The bill gives the president broad power to waive penalties if he deems it in the US interest.