Despite warnings from US President Donald Trump, India has stated that it will keep purchasing oil from Russia.
According to the Indian foreign ministry, its relationship with Russia is “steady and time-tested,” and it shouldn’t be viewed through the eyes of a third party.
Speaking at a weekly press conference on Friday, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Randhir Jaiswal stated that the availability of oil in the markets and the state of the world economy influenced India’s larger approach to meeting its energy needs.
The remarks come after Trump announced that, in response to New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, he would impose a 25 percent tariff on Indian goods in apart from an additional import tax.
The threat was made as the US president has grown irate with Russia for not agreeing to a ceasefire in Ukraine (the Russia-Ukraine conflict started in February 2022) and has vowed to impose further economic sanctions if no progress is made.
In January 2022, India imported 68,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Russia; but, by June of the same year, oil imports had increased to 1.12 million barrels per day. In May 2023, the daily imports reached a peak of 2.15 million, and they have since fluctuated.
According to the Press Trust of India, which cited statistics from the data analytics firm Kpler, supplies increased to around 40 percent of India’s imports at one point, making Moscow New Delhi’s biggest crude supplier.
Approximately 88% of India’s daily oil consumption, which is estimated at 5.5 million barrels, comes from imports.
Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, major share of the nation’s petroleum was imported from the Middle East.
After the West boycotted it in retaliation against Moscow, India, the third-largest importer of crude in the world after China and the US, started purchasing Russian oil at a discount.
Trump’s top aide Stephen Miller accused India on Sunday of indirectly “financing” Russia’s war in Ukraine by continuing to purchase oil from Moscow. He was speaking on Fox News’ ‘Sunday Morning Futures’. The comments came after the US president increased pressure on New Delhi to stop trading in Russian energy.
“What he (Trump) said very clearly is that it is not acceptable for India to continue financing this war by purchasing the oil from Russia,” the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security said.
“People will be shocked to learn that India is basically tied with China in purchasing Russian oil. That’s an astonishing fact.
Miller’s comments are the strongest by the Trump administration on its major partners in the Indo-Pacific.
Trump “wants a tremendous relationship and has always had a tremendous relationship with India” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he claimed.