US President Donald Trump issued a letter to NATO nations on Saturday, urging them to stop buying Russian oil and impose major sanctions on Russia to end its war in Ukraine.
"I am ready to do major sanctions on Russia when all NATO nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO nations stop buying oil from Russia," he said in a social media post.
He proposed that NATO, as a group, place 50-100% tariffs on China to weaken its economic grip over Russia.
This follows Trump's earlier threats of sanctions on Moscow and secondary sanctions on countries buying its oil, such as top buyers China and India, if no progress is made to end the war in Ukraine.
The president has imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, citing its continued imports of Russian oil, but has not taken similar action against China.
Trump says he's ready to impose more sanctions
Last Tuesday, Trump said his administration was ready to instate a second round of sanctions against Russia in comments to the press.
"Are you ready to move to the second phase of sanctions against Russia?" a reporter asked Trump as he left the White House to attend the US Open in New York.
"Yeah, I am," Trump responded.
Additionally, in a Sunday interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the administration was ready to dial up pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, he noted that the European Union needed to assist in order to fully "collapse" the Russian economy.
"We are prepared to increase pressure on Russia, but we need our European partners to follow us," Bessent said.