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United States President Donald Trump on Friday, October 17 reiterated that India will stop importing crude oil from Russia as part of efforts to pressure Moscow to end the war in Ukraine. Trump said India has already started reducing crude oil purchases from Russia and pulling back – prompting the US to impose additional 25 percent tariffs on Indian imports.
Speaking at the White House during a bilateral luncheon with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump said, “India will not buy Russian oil. Hungary is kind of stuck because they have a pipeline. It’s been there for years.”
Donald Trump said, “But India will not buy oil from Russia. They have already reduced oil and are retreating. They have bought about 38 percent of the oil and they will not do that again.”
Just a day earlier, Donald Trump had claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had personally assured him that India would not buy oil from Russia. He said, “So I was not happy that India was buying oil, and that [Modi] “Today they assured me that they will not buy oil from Russia.”
“This is a big step. Now we are going to do the same with China.”
“There will be no oil. He’s not buying oil,” Trump said. The change won’t happen immediately, he said, but “within a short period of time.”
The claims prompted India to categorically reject Donald Trump’s comments, stating that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) was not aware of any such talks taking place between the US President and the Indian Prime Minister, who reaffirmed their commitment to pursue energy deals on the basis of “national interest”.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “On the question of whether there was a conversation or a telephone call between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump, I am not aware of any conversation between the two leaders yesterday.”
Following Trump’s crude oil claims, Russia said it was confident that its trade ties with New Delhi would continue.
Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said, “We continue to cooperate with our friendly partners. Our energy resource is in demand. It is economically viable and viable. I am confident that our partners will continue to work with us, negotiate and develop energy cooperation.”
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