US President Donald Trump dropped another bombshell before his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, when he suggested that India has agreed to stop purchasing Russian crude oil after threats by the US administration last week to impost 50 per cent tariffs on Indian imports.
“Well he (Putin) lost an oil client, so to speak, which is India, which is doing about 40 per cent of the oil, China as you know is doing a lot, and there are a few other countries,” he said to Fox News reporters in an interview before the talks.
“If I did what’s called a secondary sanction or a secondary tariff, it would be devastating from their (Russia’s) standpoint. If I have to do it, I will do it, maybe I won’t have to do it,” the US President added.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs had welcomed and “endorsed” the talks between Trump and Putin, although it did not immediately react to the outcome of the meeting.
Also Read: India’s Russian oil imports rose to 2 mn bpd in August
Trump said he may reconsider the retaliatory tariffs announced on Indian goods in “two or three weeks”, hinting at a possible reversal of his 50 per cent tariff-hike announcement against Indian imports last week.
The additional punitive tariffs of 25 per cent over and above the 25 per cent levied by Trump in April have until August 27 to be put into place.
Indian oil refining PSUs, however, said they continue to purchase Russian crude, increasing their imports to 2 million bps (barrels per day) in August. They have not been instructed by the Centre to “buy or not to buy” from Russia, they insisted, adding that any decision-making regarding the purchase of Russian crude is completely economical and not political.
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