‘Break that grip’: Trump demands NATO targets China over Ukraine war

3 hours ago 3

London: US President Donald Trump has called on NATO leaders to impose sweeping sanctions on China to punish it for helping Russia in the war on Ukraine, declaring he will follow if they agree to the dramatic demand.

Trump blamed European leaders for buying Russian oil and avoiding tougher economic action over the war, declaring he wanted to see tariffs of 50 to 100 per cent on China in order to “break” its support for Russia.

The move came after major European countries pledged more military support to Poland to defend against incursions by Russian drones, while also sending a series of leaders to Ukraine to promise more financial aid.

But the European Union has resisted the idea of using tariffs against China despite a cooling in relations with the Asian superpower, while it has also refused to follow Trump in applying steep tariffs on India over the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed Trump’s call and said he was willing to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he emphasised the need for more funds to build thousands of interceptor drones to counter Russian drone strikes.

Trump issued his call on social media in what he called an open letter to NATO leaders and the world, without naming the Chinese exports he wanted to target.

“I am ready to do major Sanctions on Russia when all NATO Nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing,” he said.

He asked that all NATO nations stop buying oil from Russia and complained that the defence alliance had been “less than 100 per cent” committed to winning.

“The purchase of Russian Oil, by some, has been shocking! It greatly weakens your negotiating position, and bargaining power, over Russia,” he said.

“Anyway, I am ready to ‘go’ when you are. Just say when? I believe that this, plus NATO, as a group, placing 50% to 100% TARIFFS ON CHINA, to be fully withdrawn after the WAR with Russia and Ukraine is ended, will also be of great help in ENDING this deadly, but RIDICULOUS, WAR.

Oil tanker trucks outside an oil refinery operated in Mumbai, India.

“China has a strong control, and even grip, over Russia, and these powerful Tariffs will break that grip.”

The demands, issued ahead of Trump’s visit to Britain in the week ahead, came with a suggestion that the president might not do anything further if NATO members did not act.

“If NATO does as I say, the WAR will end quickly, and all of those lives will be saved! If not, you are just wasting my time, and the time, energy, and money of the United States,” he wrote.

EU ministers agreed on Friday to extend sanctions on more than 2,500 individuals and entities supporting the Russian war, while discussing another round of sanctions on oil sales, shadow oil tankers and banks. The next round would follow 18 earlier sanctions packages.

“We’ll keep choking off the cash for Putin’s war,” said the EU’s foreign affairs commissioner, Kaja Kallas.

NATO members have cut their use of Russian oil since the full-scale invasion in February 2022, but three member states remain large buyers: Turkey, Hungary and Slovakia.

The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a non-profit analyst group, said the EU as a bloc had cut its imports of Russian oil by 88 per cent from 2022 to 2024.

“That said, in 2025, the trends towards crude purchases from Russia haven’t seen any further drop,” said CREA analyst Vaibhav Raghunandan.

“In the first eight months of this year, crude purchases have seen a 13 per cent increase in volume. This is primarily due to some countries showing a complete lack of ambition or desire to diversify from Russian fossil fuels.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refused to join the European sanctions, given Turkey is a member of NATO but not the EU, and is heavily dependent on energy imports.

Some EU leaders are at odds with the union over action against Russia or China.

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has maintained ties with Putin and was one of the few European leaders to join Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing earlier this month for a military parade where Putin also joined the gathering.

Hungarian President Viktor Orban is openly critical of Zelensky and also seeks stronger ties with Beijing.

“Hungarian leaders have openly embraced and shown admiration for the US administration, while also quite clearly defying one of their key foreign policy objectives vis a vis Russia,” said Raghunandan.

“A second similar case can be made for Slovakia, whose purchases of Russian crude in 2025 are 45 per cent more than that in 2024.”

Member states must unanimously agree to renew EU sanctions every six months, as they did on Friday. The commissioners who lead the executive wing of the union, led by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, do not need unanimous approval for trade decisions, such as tariffs, but member states could seek to stymie the decisions.

The Trump administration imposed a 50 per cent tariff on goods from India last month, including a 25% penalty for its oil purchases from Russia, but the EU has not followed because it is in negotiations with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a trade pact.

While Trump has been steadily urging European leaders to act against China, raising this idea in talks earlier this month, his social media post on the weekend revealed his written demand to NATO member states.

The EU has imposed some tariffs on China, including measures in April to counter what it called unfair subsidies for Chinese electric vehicles, but it has avoided across-the-board tariffs.

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