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Informist, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025

NEW DELHI – The Ministry of External Affairs Thursday rejected US President Donald Trump's claim of having a conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in which Modi allegedly assured him that India will not buy oil from Russia. "In so far as telephonic conversation is concerned, as far as I am aware, there has been no communication between Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump Wednesday," Randhir Jaiswal, the official spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said in a briefing Thursday.

"Modi is a great man, he loves Trump. He's assured me there will be no oil purchased from Russia," Trump told reporters during an event at the White House Wednesday. Trump referred to this as a "big step" and that now Washington will get Beijing to stop purchasing Russian oil. India is one of the top buyers of Russian crude oil, which accounts for over one-third of the country's total oil imports.

Despite Trump's claim of pro-peace agenda being the reason behind dissuading India from procuring Russian oil, he has eventually disclosed what would be a win-win situation for Washington is India procuring oil and military products from the US. To that extent, he slapping a 25% reciprocal tariff on Indian goods, along with another 25% punitive tariff for India's economic ties with Russia. 

India has been buying crude oil from Russia at a discounted price amid sanctions by Western countries on Russia. The Group of Seven developed nations had initially imposed a $60-a-barrel price cap on Russian crude. Later, it imposed more sanctions to try to curb Moscow's petroleum sales. India bought Russian crude oil up to $30-a-barrel cheaper, though discounts have varied sharply over the past three years and have been around $2-$3 a barrel in recent times. The International Monetary Fund in February said India saved around $7 billion per year by importing crude oil from Russia at discounted prices.

The Ministry of External Affairs said in a post on X earlier in the day, as far as procuring oil from the US is concerned, India has over the years tried to expand its energy procurement and that the current US administration has shown interest in deepening energy cooperation with India. "Discussions are ongoing," the government said. "Ensuring stable energy prices and securing supplies have been twin goals of our energy policy. This includes broad-basing our energy sourcing and diversifying as appropriate to meet market conditions."

India is happy to buy more energy products from the US if the price is right, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal had said Wednesday. There is headroom to buy more energy products from the US, Agrawal had said. These developments come as New Delhi and Washington try ironing out the differences between them to secure a mutually beneficial bilateral trade deal by fall. The trade deal is seen as an insulation against Trump's steep tariffs, with US being India's top export destination. In 2024-25 (Apr-Mar), India had exported $86.51 billion of goods to the US, and had a trade surplus of $40.82 billion with the US.  End

US$1 = INR 87.82

Reported by Priyasmita Dutta

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

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