Journalism of Courage
US President Donald Trump, while interacting with reporters at the White House on Wednesday, claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured him that India will stop buying oil from Russia, a move that the US president describes as a “big step” in effort to isolate Moscow financially, Reuters reported.
The United States has been “disappointed” with India’s continued Russian oil imports, which according to the Trump administration, has been aiding Moscow’s war machinery against Ukraine. White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett had said last month that since it’s a democratic issue, “we’ll have positive development soon”.
President Trump had stirred controversy in September after posting on X that “Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest China. May they have a long and prosperous future together.” The US president’s comments had come when Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted 20 leaders, including PM Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin.
The Trump administration also accused India of profiting by purchasing Russian oil, however, India has said that the country is being singled out when the European Union continues to purchase Russian gas and China is actually the biggest importer of Russian oil.
Trump had imposed a 25% tariff on import of India goods, which he calls as “reciprocal tariffs”, but an additional 25% duty was penalised on India, making the cumulative tariffs on Indian goods to 50%.
The additional tariff was imposed due to India’s continued purchase of Russian oil. Following the decision made by the US, the External Affairs Ministry issued a statement and said that “targeting of India is unjustified and unreasonable” and India, like any major economy, would take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security.
The MEA statement also illustrated some statistics related to bilateral trade carried out between the European Union and Russia in 2024. It stated that the EU had a bilateral trade of €67.5 billion in goods with Russia. In addition, it had trade in services estimated at €17.2 billion in 2023.
(with inputs from agencies)
