Hours after United States President Donald Trump claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured him that India would stop purchasing Russian oil, the Ministry of External Affairs said that no conversation had taken place between the two leaders on Wednesday.
“As per my information, there was no telephonic conversation between PM Modi and US President Trump yesterday,” ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a weekly press briefing on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the ministry had issued a statement saying that neither confirmed nor denied Trump’s claim.
The ministry had said ensuring stable energy prices and secure supplies were the twin goals of India’s energy policy. “This includes broad-basing our energy sourcing and diversifying as appropriate to meet market conditions,” it had said.
The foreign ministry had added: “The current [US] administration has shown interest in deepening energy cooperation with India. Discussions are ongoing.”
On Wednesday, Trump had told reporters that Modi had agreed to halt India’s Russian oil imports “within a short period of time”, which he described as “a big stop”.
He added that India could not “immediately” halt oil shipments. He said that the shift would be “a little bit of a process, but the process is going to be over with soon”.
Trump’s remarks came in the backdrop of tensions between New Delhi and Washington over the United States’ decision to impose “reciprocal” tariffs on Indian goods and punitive levies on imports of Russian oil.
The US president has repeatedly alleged that India’s purchases were helping to fund Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Tariffs on India
The combined tariff rate for India is at 50%. A 25% “reciprocal” duty imposed was on August 7, followed by an additional 25% punitive levy on August 27.
At the time, New Delhi said that it was “extremely unfortunate” that the US had chosen to impose additional tariffs on India “for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest”.
However, recently, trade talks between the two countries have gained fresh momentum.
On September 23, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal met US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in New York to accelerate negotiations.
This came after a team led by Brendan Lynch, the chief negotiator for the India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement, met Indian officials in New Delhi on September 15.
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