US President Trump says India cutting back Russian oil purchases ‘completely’

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump once again claimed that India is going to stop buying oil from Russia, emphasising that India is cutting back Russian oil purchases “completely” while China will cut back “very substantially.”

Talking to reporters onboard Air Force One on his way to Malaysia, on Saturday, Trump said that “India is cutting back” Russian oil purchases “completely.”

While responding to a question about raising the issue of Russian oil with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting, Trump said he might discuss Russian oil purchases with Xi.

“I may be discussing it, but you know China, you probably saw it today. China's cutting back very substantially on the purchase of Russian oil,” Trump said.

Trump is set to meet Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea.

The US president and his administration have been claiming for the past few days that India has assured that it will significantly reduce its oil imports from Russia.

However, India has been maintaining that its energy policy is guided by its own national interest, especially ensuring affordable and secure supplies for its consumers.

According to the US, India is helping Russian President Vladimir Putin to finance the Ukraine war through its purchase of crude oil from Moscow.

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. India described the US action as "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable".

While answering another question, Trump has once again claimed to resolve the conflict between India and Pakistan. Trump said he thought that other wars, including the one between India and Pakistan, would be difficult to resolve and settling the Russia and Ukraine war would be easy, but he was wrong.

“If you look at India and Pakistan, I could say almost any one of the deals that I've already done, I thought would have been more difficult than Russia and Ukraine, but it didn't work out that way. There's a lot of hatred between the two, between Zelensky and Putin. There's tremendous hatred,” Trump added.

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 India and Pakistan.

India has consistently maintained that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was reached following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two militaries.

India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians.

India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.