Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump on Sunday repeated his claim that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told him India would stop buying Russian oil, but warned that India would face steep tariffs if it does not follow through.
“I spoke with Prime Minister Modi of India, and he said he’s not going to be doing the Russian oil thing,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
When asked about India’s public statement that it was unaware of any such conversation, Trump responded: “But if they want to say that, then they’ll just continue to pay massive tariffs, and they don’t want to do that.”
Russian oil has been a significant controversy in the ongoing trade talks between the United States and India. Trump has imposed 50 percent tariffs on many Indian goods, and half of those duties are retaliatory measures tied to India’s continued imports of Russian crude.
The U.S. government has argued that revenue from oil exports helps fund Russia’s war in Ukraine.
India has emerged as the world’s largest buyer of seaborne Russian oil, taking advantage of steep discounts after Western nations cut purchases and placed sanctions on Moscow following its 2022 invasion.
On Wednesday, Trump said Modi personally assured him that day that India would halt Russian oil purchases. However, a White House official said Thursday that India has reduced its imports of Russian oil by about half. Indian industry sources disputed that, saying no immediate decline had occurred.
The sources said refiners in India have already placed orders for November shipments, including cargoes scheduled to arrive in December. As a result, any decline would likely not appear until December or January, when the data is released.
The update comes after President Trump said Thursday he plans to meet Putin in Hungary to try to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, though no date has been set.
“I believe great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social after speaking with Putin earlier in the day.
“[W]e agreed that there will be a meeting of our High Level Advisors, next week. The United States’ initial meetings will be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with various other people, to be designated. A meeting location is to be determined. President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end.”
