U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday called on European Union officials to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on China as part of a strategy to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a U.S. official and an EU diplomat.

Trump also encouraged the European Union to impose similarly broad tariffs on India, said the official, who spoke on background about private conversations.

China and India are major purchasers of Russian oil and therefore play a central role in keeping Russia's economy running as it continues its expanded invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022.

Trump made the request during a conference call with EU sanctions envoy David O'Sullivan and other EU officials. The EU delegation is in Washington this week for talks on sanction coordination.

The EU diplomat said the U.S. had signalled that it was ready to impose equivalent tariffs if the European Union agreed to the request.

"They are basically saying: We'll do this, but you need to do it with us," the diplomat said.

If carried out, the U.S. proposal would mark a change in the EU’s strategy, which has until now relied on sanctions to isolate Russia rather than tariffs.

China strongly opposed the U.S. push to apply what it called economic pressure, its foreign ministry said at a routine press briefing on Wednesday, adding that it also opposed being brought into discussions on Russia.

Trump’s request, which was first reported by the Financial Times, fits with his repeated threats to impose tariffs on China and India as punishment for their purchases of Russian crude.

While Trump did raise tariffs on India over the summer by 25 percentage points, partly because of its economic relationship with the Kremlin, he has not yet acted on the tougher measures he has spoken about.

At times, he has also complained that Europe itself has not fully cut ties with Russia, which supplied about 19 per cent of EU gas imports last year, even though the bloc has said it is committed to ending its reliance on Russian energy.

On Tuesday, Trump suggested that the U.S. could, in fact, boost trade with India, in a social media post saying, U.S. and India are working to address trade barriers between the two nations. He added that he is looking forward to speaking with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.