Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told President Donald Trump that his country would stop buying Russian oil, the Republican leader has said, as the White House attempts to exert more pressure on the Kremlin over a peace deal for Ukraine.
Modi “assured me there will be no oil purchased from Russia,” Trump told reporters in the White House on Wednesday. “He’s not buying his oil from Russia.”
An Indian government spokesperson said the the U.S. administration had “shown interest in deepening energy cooperation with India” and talks were ongoing.
Why It Matters
India is a major importer of Russian fossil fuels, particularly crude oil, and is second only to China.
Trump has long asked New Delhi to stop buying Russian oil and in August slapped India with an additional 25 percent tariff explicitly tied to the country’s “direct and indirect” Russian oil consumption, bringing the overall penalty to 50 percent.
The two countries have for months been negotiating a trade deal, but India has been reluctant to cave in to U.S. demands to open up its dairy and agriculture markets.
The White House, frustrated with the slow pace of progress on a peace deal for Ukraine, has become more critical of Moscow although Trump appears to still be unwilling to hit the Kremlin with punishing sanctions.
In early September, Russia brushed off Trump’s comments about further sanctions over the war in Ukraine, saying they have “no effect whatsoever” and are “absolutely useless.”
Trump told reporters on Sunday, September 7, that he was ready to move to the next phase of sanctions against Russia. He had threatened secondary tariffs on major Russian trading partners and other sanctions if Moscow did not make peace with Ukraine soon.
What To Know
Modi “can’t do it immediately, it’s a little bit of a process, but the process is going to be over with soon,” Trump said.
India’s state-owned refineries have imported less Russian crude oil, and dropped in September to their lowest levels since May 2022, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. Trump has also pressured European countries to stop importing Russian oil.
Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin needed to “stop killing” both Ukrainians and Russians, adding: “It doesn’t make him look good. It’s a war that he should have won in one week, and he’s now going into his fourth year.”
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022. According to figures from the Ukrainian military, Russian daily casualties on the frontlines regularly exceed 1,000 soldiers. Moscow does not publish running tallies of Ukrainian casualties, and Kyiv avoids publishing data on its own losses. Western analysts and officials have said Putin expected to sweep through the country in a matter of days.
A Ukrainian delegation of senior officials is currently in the U.S., and Ukrainian Prime Minister, Volodymyr Zelensky, will meet Trump on Friday as discussions over whether the U.S. will provide its long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Kyiv rumble on.
Modi is balancing his relationship with the White House with a friendship with the Kremlin, and was spotted holding hands with Putin in early September during a summit in China.
“Now I’ve got to get China to do the same thing,” Trump said on Wednesday. A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said Beijing was “firmly opposed to the United States citing China at every opportunity,” and “China’s normal economic, trade, and energy cooperation with countries around the world, including Russia, is legal and legitimate,” according to remarks carried by Russian state media.
What People Are Saying
Shri Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesperson for the Indian government, said on Thursday: “Where the U.S. is concerned, we have for many years sought to expand our energy procurement. This has steadily progressed in the last decade. The current Administration has shown interest in deepening energy cooperation with India. Discussions are ongoing.”
