Donald Trump reiterates his claim, says India will stop buying Russian oil

US President Donald Trump reiterated on Friday that India would no longer buy oil from Russia. Speaking at the White House during his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump said India had already scaled back its purchases from Moscow. “India will not be buying oil from Russia,” Trump said. “They’ve already deescalated.” “India is not going to be buying Russian oil anymore,” Trump said at the White House press briefing. He acknowledged that the process “can’t be done immediately” but assured reporters, “the process is going to be over with soon.”

Trump has been repeatedly saying that he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine with a mix of diplomacy and tariffs, if NATO countries stop buying Russian energy.

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However, he struck a sympathetic note when questioned about Hungary, a NATO member heavily reliant on Russian crude. “Hungary is sort of stuck because they have one pipeline that’s been there for years and years and years,” he said. “They’re inland—they don’t have sea. It’s very hard for them to get oil. I understand it.”

Trump repeated his claim even after India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson had denied his earlier remark and clarified that there was “no conversation” between PM Narendra Modi and the US President on the matter on the specified day.

The MEA spokesperson instead reiterated that India’s “consistent priority” is to “safeguard the interests of the Indian consumer in a volatile energy scenario” and that its import policies are guided by the twin goals of “stable energy prices and secured supplies”, thereby upholding the continued energy trade with Russia, which offers substantial discounts.

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Currently, Russia is the primary crude oil supplier to India and accounts for nearly one-third of its total oil imports.

However, some reports suggest that the Russian crude imports by Indian refiners has witnessed some volatility on monthly basis due to price economics and discounts. Trump has been pushing India to stop energy trade with Moscow amid ongoing US-India trade negotiations.