Trump reaffirms India ties, ‘Very close to Modi’ but flags Russian oil purchase

By Anjali Sharma

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he is very close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reaffirmed ties with India but not without a mention of New Delhi’s Russian oil imports.

Trump on a state visit to the UN, flanked by UK PM Keir Starmer, Trump said, “I’m very close to India. I’m very close to the Prime Minister of India. Spoke to him the other day, wished him a happy birthday. We have a very good relationship. He put out a beautiful statement, too, But I said, I sanctioned them. China is paying a very large tariff right now to the United States.”

He hinted that the punitive tariffs he imposed on India and allies can be revoked provided that the countries stop buying Russian oil; Trump said the issue of Russian oil would settle if the crude prices come down.

“I’m willing to do other things, but not when the people that I’m fighting for are buying oil from Russia. If the oil price comes down, very simply, Russia will settle. And the oil price is way down. We got it way down. We’re drilling and we produce more oil than anybody else in the world. We’re doing a lot,” he added.

He imposed 50 per cent tariffs on India, including a 25 per cent penalty for oil purchase from the Russian Federation, a decision that brought the trade negotiations between India and the US to an abrupt halt, leaving the bilateral relations between the two countries in limbo. However, after Prime Minister Modi’s visit to China where he met President Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin Trump attempted a course correction and reached out to Modi.

Modi also reciprocated positively, paved the way for the resumption of trade talks. A social media exchange between Trump and Modi resulted in a team of US trade negotiators visiting New Delhi to hold the first in-person talks with their Indian counterparts to finalise a trade pact since the imposition of 50 per cent tariffs.