Ajit Doval arrives in Moscow amid Trump's tariff threat over Russian oil import

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is also expected to visit Moscow later in the month.

Although the visit had been scheduled in advance, it now has renewed urgency owing to US President Donald Trump's comments regarding India's relationship with Russia.

Trump announced on Tuesday that he would increase the tariffs imposed on Indian imports "very substantially" over the next 24 hours due to India's continued purchases of Russian oil.

"India has not been a good trading partner, because they do a lot of business with us, but we don't do business with them. So we settled on 25 percent but I think I'm going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they're buying Russian oil," he told CNBC in a televised interview.

This comes a day after Trump threatened that he would "substantially" raise US tariffs on India over its purchase of Russian oil, stating that the South Asian country doesn't care for the lives lost in Ukraine.

"India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits. They don't care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

"Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA," he said without specifying what tariff level he had in mind.

As a response to that, India had criticised the United States and European Union for singling out Indian refiners over their exports of crude.

In a strongly worded statement, India has hit back at the US after Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on goods from India over its purchase of Russian oil and said targeting it "is unjustified and unreasonable" when the criticising countries themselves "indulge in trade" with Moscow.

The Ministry of External Affairs, in a statement, also countered the stance of the European Union for singling out Indian refiners over their exports of crude.

"India has been targeted by the United States and the European Union for importing oil from Russia after the commencement of the Ukraine conflict," the MEA statement said.

Justifying its shift to Russia for crude, the government said that while India's imports are "a necessity compelled by the global market situation", the nations criticising it are themselves "indulging in trade with Russia".

"In fact, India began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict. The United States at that time actively encouraged such imports by India for strengthening global energy markets stability," it said.

"India’s imports are meant to ensure predictable and affordable energy costs to the Indian consumer. They are a necessity compelled by global market situation. However, it is revealing that the very nations criticizing India are themselves indulging in trade with Russia. Unlike our case, such trade is not even a vital national compulsion," the statement said.