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Trump doubles down, says Modi promised to end Russian oil trade, threatens New Delhi for denying his claims

Trump doubles down, says Modi promised to end Russian oil trade, threatens New Delhi for denying his claims

Activists burn an effigy of US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they protest against the Indo-US trade deal Photograph: (AFP)

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Trump has repeated his claim that India has assured him it would stop buying Russian oil, despite New Delhi denying any such call or commitment. In the latest claim, he said Modi told him, he was "not going to be doing the Russian oil thing".

US President Donald Trump on Monday (Oct 20) repeated his claims that India has assured him that it would stop oil trade with Russia to court US favours. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump, for the third time in five days, repeated his claim that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told him that he was "not going to be doing the Russian oil thing". The POTUS claimed that Modi told him this during a phone call. His claims come after India previously denied that Modi and Trump held a phone call regarding India's purchase of discounted Russian oil or any purported plans to stop the said trade.

What did Trump say?

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In his latest statement regarding India's purchase of Russian oil, Trump claimed, "I spoke with Prime Minister Modi of India, and he said he's not going to be doing the Russian oil thing". His claim was met with questions about New Delhi denying that he and Modi held a phone call last week regarding India's purchase of Russian oil. To this, as reported by Reuters, Trump said, "But if they want to say that, then they'll just continue to pay massive tariffs, and they don't want to do that".

Previously, on Thursday (Oct 16) the US President claimed that Modi "assured me there will be no oil purchased from Russia." However, he did not share a timeline for this but said, “You know, you can't do it immediately. It's a little bit of a process, but the process is going to be over with soon." Later, during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he repeated the claim, "Well, India is not going to be buying Russian oil anymore".

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India pushes back against Trump's claim

On Thursday, just hours after Trump claimed that Modi had "assured" him that New Delhi would soon stop buying oil from Russia, New Delhi, in a statement, said it was its "consistent priority to safeguard the interests of the Indian consumer in a volatile energy scenario."
While avoiding directly accepting or refuting Trump's claims, the South Asian nation noted, "India is a significant importer of oil and gas. It has been our consistent priority to safeguard the interests of the Indian consumer in a volatile energy scenario."
However, later, when asked by a reporter, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal refused that such a call happened and said: "I am not aware of any conversation yesterday between the two leaders".

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Moohita Kaur Garg

Moohita Kaur Garg is a journalist and Senior Sub-Editor at WION News, specialising in the volatile intersections of global security, defense technology, and South Asian geopolitics...Read More