“The buy of Russian Oil, by some, has been surprising! It enormously weakens your negotiating place, and bargaining energy, over Russia,” he mentioned.
“Anyway, I’m able to ‘go’ when you’re. Just say when? I imagine that this, plus NATO, as a bunch, putting 50% to 100% TARIFFS ON CHINA, to be totally withdrawn after the WAR with Russia and Ukraine is ended, can even be of nice assist in ENDING this lethal, however RIDICULOUS, WAR.
Oil tanker vehicles outdoors an oil refinery operated in Mumbai, India.Credit: Bloomberg
“China has a powerful management, and even grip, over Russia, and these highly effective Tariffs will break that grip.”
The calls for, issued forward of Trump’s go to to Britain within the week forward, got here with a suggestion that the president may not do something additional if NATO members didn’t act.
“If NATO does as I say, the WAR will finish shortly, and all of these lives can be saved! If not, you’re simply losing my time, and the time, vitality, and cash of the United States,” he wrote.
EU ministers agreed on Friday to increase sanctions on greater than 2,500 people and entities supporting the Russian conflict, whereas discussing one other spherical of sanctions on oil gross sales, shadow oil tankers and banks. The subsequent spherical would comply with 18 earlier sanctions packages.
“We’ll maintain choking off the money for Putin’s conflict,” mentioned the EU’s international affairs commissioner, Kaja Kallas.
NATO members have minimize their use of Russian oil because the full-scale invasion in February 2022, however three member states stay giant patrons: Turkey, Hungary and Slovakia.
The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a non-profit analyst group, mentioned the EU as a bloc had minimize its imports of Russian oil by 88 per cent from 2022 to 2024.
“That mentioned, in 2025, the traits in direction of crude purchases from Russia haven’t seen any additional drop,” mentioned CREA analyst Vaibhav Raghunandan.
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“In the primary eight months of this yr, crude purchases have seen a 13 per cent enhance in quantity. This is primarily as a consequence of some nations exhibiting a whole lack of ambition or want to diversify from Russian fossil fuels.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refused to affix the European sanctions, given Turkey is a member of NATO however not the EU, and is closely depending on vitality imports.
Some EU leaders are at odds with the union over motion in opposition to Russia or China.
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has maintained ties with Putin and was one of many few European leaders to affix Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing earlier this month for a navy parade the place Putin additionally joined the gathering.
Hungarian President Viktor Orban is overtly vital of Zelensky and in addition seeks stronger ties with Beijing.
“Hungarian leaders have overtly embraced and proven admiration for the US administration, whereas additionally fairly clearly defying considered one of their key international coverage aims vis a vis Russia,” mentioned Raghunandan.
“A second comparable case could be made for Slovakia, whose purchases of Russian crude in 2025 are 45 per cent greater than that in 2024.”
Member states should unanimously conform to renew EU sanctions each six months, as they did on Friday. The commissioners who lead the chief wing of the union, led by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, don’t want unanimous approval for commerce selections, similar to tariffs, however member states might search to stymie the selections.
The Trump administration imposed a 50 per cent tariff on items from India final month, together with a 25% penalty for its oil purchases from Russia, however the EU has not adopted as a result of it’s in negotiations with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a commerce pact.
While Trump has been steadily urging European leaders to behave in opposition to China, elevating this concept in talks earlier this month, his social media put up on the weekend revealed his written demand to NATO member states.
The EU has imposed some tariffs on China, together with measures in April to counter what it known as unfair subsidies for Chinese electrical autos, nevertheless it has averted across-the-board tariffs.
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