WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump reiterated that India will no longer be buying oil from Russia, saying that New Delhi has already “de-escalated” and largely ceased its oil purchases from Moscow.
Speaking to the media during a bilateral lunch with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump said, “India will not be buying oil from Russia, they have already de-escalated, and they have more or less stopped.” “They are pulling back. They have bought about 38 per cent of the oil, and they won’t be doing it anymore,” Trump said while replying to a question.
Trump’s statement follows earlier comments in which he said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured him that New Delhi would halt its procurement of Russian crude oil.
Washington has been maintaining that India is helping Putin to finance the war through its purchase of Russian crude oil.
The relations between New Delhi and Washington have been reeling under severe stress after Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50 per cent, including a 25 per cent additional duty for India’s purchase of Russian crude oil.
Meanwhile, Trump has once again repeated his claims about resolving the war between India and Pakistan, adding that Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif has said, “I have saved millions of lives.” “The Prime Minister of Pakistan said I saved millions of lives by interceding … you look at Pakistan and India as an example that would have been a bad one for two nuclear nations,” the US President said.
Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington, he has repeated his claim dozens of times that he “helped settle” the conflict between the two countries.
