US President Donald Trump, in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, criticized NATO members and major Asian buyers for continuing to purchase Russian energy, saying such trade supports Russia’s war economy. He suggested that the US may consider new trade measures, according to The Guardian on September 23.
“In the event that Russia is not ready to make a deal to end the war, then the United States is fully prepared to impose a very strong round of powerful tariffs,” he said, adding that European allies would “have to join” the measures for them to be effective.
Trump reiterated his earlier demand that NATO states halt Russian oil purchases and said sanctions pressure should extend to key third-country buyers. In a prior statement this month, he said the war would end if all NATO countries stopped buying Russian oil and if tariffs of “50% to 100%” were placed on China over its purchases of Russian crude.
From the UN rostrum, Trump explicitly singled out India and China. “China and India are the primary funders of the ongoing war by continuing to purchase the Russian oil,” he said, adding that “even NATO countries have not cut off much Russian energy,” which he claimed to have learned “two weeks ago.”
He also criticized Europe’s continued purchases: “Europe is buying oil from Russia. I don’t want them to buy oil,” he said in remarks echoed in recent media appearances, while linking any new US penalties to allied participation.
The comments follow Trump’s mid-September warning that additional US sanctions on Moscow are contingent on a complete NATO halt to Russian oil. “I am ready to do major sanctions on Russia when all NATO nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO nations stop buying oil from Russia,” he said earlier.
European reliance on Russian energy has fallen sharply since 2022, but exemptions and pipeline flows persist, notably via the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia. Budapest on September 23 publicly rejected calls to end Russian oil imports, citing energy security constraints.
Meanwhile, India has become a major outlet for discounted Russian crude; Washington Post reporting estimates Reliance Industries alone has purchased about $33 billion in Russian oil since 2022, underscoring the scale of trade flows Trump wants to curtail.
Earlier, it was reported that the EU was preparing measures to block Russian oil imports via the Druzhba pipeline, potentially cutting supplies to Hungary and Slovakia.
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