Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asserted that India “will undoubtedly be buying Russian oil”, even as trade tensions deepen with Washington following the imposition of 50 percent tariffs on Indian imports into the US.
“Whether it is Russian oil or anything else, we will take a call based on what suits our needs in terms of rates, logistics or other factors. Where we buy our oil from, especially as it is a major foreign exchange-related item, is a call we will take based on what suits us best. So, we will undoubtedly be buying Russian oil,” Sitharaman said in an interview with News18 on Friday.
Her remarks follow sharp criticism from Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro, who has repeatedly attacked India’s energy ties with Moscow. Navarro alleged that Indian refiners purchase cheap Russian crude, process it, and resell it abroad at a premium, calling India “a laundromat for the Kremlin”.
Trump himself has stepped up criticism of New Delhi’s position. In a Truth Social post on Friday, the president claimed that the US had “lost” both India and Russia to “deepest, darkest China”. He also posted a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping taken at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin.
India saved more than $17 billion in early 2022 by stepping up imports of discounted Russian oil, analysts say. Russian crude now makes up nearly 40 percent of India’s total oil imports, compared with almost nothing before the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Analysts said that any sudden halt in purchases would not only amount to yielding under political pressure but would also be economically unsustainable.
(By arrangement with livemint.com)