NEW YORK/WASHINGTON: US Vice President J D Vance on Sunday said President Donald Trump has applied “aggressive economic leverage” such as “secondary tariffs on India” to force Russia to stop bombing Ukraine.Vance was speaking during an exclusive interview on NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ when he also said the step would “make it harder” for the Russians to get rich from their oil economy.The Trump administration has been highly critical of India for its procurement of discounted crude oil from Russia.Interestingly, Washington has not been criticising China, the largest importer of Russian crude oil.India has been maintaining that its energy procurement, including from Russia, is driven by national interest and market dynamics.Vance remained confident the US can broker an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine despite potential hang-ups that have emerged since President Trump’s meeting this month with Russian President Vladimir Putin, NBC News said.”We believe we’ve already seen some significant concessions from both sides, just in the last few weeks,” Vance said in the interview aired on Sunday morning.”If the US is not ‘imposing new sanctions,’ what is the pressure on Russia? How do you get them to a place of getting to the table with Zelenskyy and stopping to drop bombs?” moderator Kristen Welker asked.”Trump has applied ‘aggressive economic leverage,’ for example – secondary tariffs on India, to try to make it harder for the Russians to get rich from their oil economy,” Vance replied.”He tried to make it clear that Russia can be reinvited into the world economy if they stop the killing. But they are going to continue to be isolated if they don’t stop the killing,” he said.
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