A day after US President Donald Trump’s threat, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte issued a stark warning on Wednesday, saying that countries like India, China, and Brazil could face severe secondary sanctions if they continue trade relations with Russia.
He said this during meetings with US senators, a day after President Donald Trump unveiled a new weapons package for Ukraine and threatened "biting" secondary tariffs of 100% on buyers of Russian exports unless a peace agreement is reached within 50 days.
What the NATO chief said on secondary sanctions
"My encouragement to these three countries, particularly is, if you live now in Beijing, or in Delhi, or you are the president of Brazil, you might want to take a look into this, because this might hit you very hard," Rutte told reporters.
"So please make the phone call to Vladimir Putin and tell him that he has to get serious about peace talks, because otherwise this will slam back on Brazil, on India and on China in a massive way," he added.
Trump would punish Russia with tariffs
Donald Trump said on Monday he would punish Russia with tariffs if there isn't a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days. The US President made the announcement during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
"We're going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days," Trump said.
He did not provide specifics on how the tariffs would be implemented.
Meanwhile, Trump's special envoy to Ukraine and Russia met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Monday, as anticipation grew over a possible shift in the Trump administration's policy on the three-year war.
Rutte also planned to hold talks with US Defence Secretary Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as members of Congress.
Trump made quickly stopping the war one of his diplomatic priorities, and he has increasingly expressed frustration about Russian President Vladimir Putin's unbudging stance on US-led peace efforts.
Trump has long boasted of his friendly relationship with Putin, and after taking office in January, he repeatedly said that Russia was more willing than Ukraine to reach a peace deal.
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