US White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump had placed tariffs on India as a tactic to pressure Russia regarding the Ukraine conflict. Trump has raised India's tariffs to 50 per cent, imposing an additional 25 per cent charge in addition to the initial 25 per cent.
Leavitt clarified in the press conference that the sanctions were to put pressure on Russia secondarily.
"Look, the president has applied a great deal of public pressure to end this war. He's done things, as you've seen, sanctions on India and other things as well. He's made himself very clear that he desires to see this war end, and he's laughed at the suggestions of others that have been made that we should wait a month before any meeting occurs," she stated.
Earlier, Trump received Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, where the latter showed willingness to hold a trilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to broker a peace deal to end the war. Trump hailed the day as very productive, while Zelensky referred to it as the "best conversation" he has ever had with the US President.
Leavitt highlighted that Trump is working to bring peace quickly.
"The president is eager to move and he's eager to end this war in a hurry. With all those European leaders exiting the White House, including the Secretary General of NATO, they all say that this is a wonderful first step. And it's a good thing that these two leaders are going to be sitting face to face, and the president hopes that will occur," she stated.
She added, "I can promise you that the United States government and the Trump administration are working with both Ukraine and Russia to facilitate that bilateral occur right now."
Leavitt also pointed out that Trump's swift diplomacy resulted in European leaders visiting the White House within 48 hours of Trump's meeting with Putin.
"The President met with all of these European leaders at the White House 48 hours after having a sit-down with President Putin on American soil. Indeed, there was so much progress in the readout that was presented to these European leaders immediately after his meeting with President Putin that all of them boarded a plane 48 hours later and traveled to the United States of America," she added.
"So these leaders whose back yard this war is, they're incredibly thankful that the president made that call and that he was present to give them a readout of Russia's strategy on this, something that the last administration did not do at all," she continued.
Whether the war would have occurred under Trump was questioned, and Leavitt reaffirmed the administration's position.
"The president frequently states that this war would never have been started if he were the president, and Putin ratified that," a journalist asked.
True, Leavitt ratified, "Do you believe that's true? The European leaders do. Well, and President Putin himself said that, by the way."
On security guarantees after he leaves office, Leavitt explained their president knows the value of enduring peace and is holding talks with European leaders and NATO to achieve that.
"Well, he recognizes that need, which he addressed yesterday. That's why he is having a lot of talks and conversations with both sides of this conflict with our European allies. The President himself was talking to the leaders of Europe and NATO about how to provide ultimate peace and bring an end to it. He's put an unbelievable amount of time, effort and energy into ending this war, and he's still committed to doing that," Leavitt said.
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