United Nations, Sept 23: China and India are the “primary funders” of the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine by continuing to purchase Russian oil, US President Donald Trump said in his UN General Assembly address on Tuesday.
The Trump administration has imposed an additional 25 per cent tariff on New Delhi as a penalty for its purchases of Russian oil, taking the total levies imposed on India by the US to 50 per cent, among the highest in the world.
“China and India are the primary funders of the ongoing war by continuing to purchase Russian oil,” Trump said in his address at the General Debate of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly.
India has called the tariffs imposed by the US “unjustified and unreasonable”.
New Delhi said that, like any major economy, it will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security.
Trump blasts UN for not ending wars
Standing in front of top UN officials, before more than 150 world leaders, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday blasted the international organisation.
He said they didn’t reach out to him on the various wars he says he has brought to a conclusion.
“I’ve always said the UN has such tremendous, tremendous potential. But it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential,” Trump said.
“For the most part, at least for now, all they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter. It’s empty words and empty words don’t solve wars.”
Trump wasted little time telling representatives of countries across the world that the US is “the hottest country anywhere in the world, and there is no other country even close.”
He added later that the US is “the best country on Earth to do business” and claimed the economy now is “bigger and even better” than during his first term, which he described as “the greatest … in the history of the world.”
And he claimed the US is “respected again” like never before.
That kind of national bragging is generally frowned upon in diplomatic settings, including at the United Nations. Trump took the same approach in his remarks recently during a state visit to the United Kingdom.
At least twice in the opening minutes of his UN speech, Trump took swipes at his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.
It continues Trump’s tactic of bragging on the US performance compared both to the Democratic administration and the rest of the world. Trump has mostly used general superlatives rather than verifiable facts to make such claims.
It also stands out for a head of state speaking at the UN to inject their own domestic politics into the international discourse.
Trump opened his UN General Assembly address with a joke about the non-working teleprompter.
Trump said he didn’t mind speaking without a teleprompter because “that way, you speak more from the heart.”
He joked that whoever is running the teleprompter “is in big trouble.” (PTI)
