The Congress on Wednesday described remarks by the United States that Washington had “temporarily permitted” India to accept Russian oil as a “capitulation certificate” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described India as a “good actor” that had previously stopped buying sanctioned Russian oil amid Moscow’s war on Ukraine. She said that, as a short-term measure, the US had permitted India to accept Russian oil that was already on ships at sea.
“So as we work to appease this temporary gap of oil supply around the world because of the Iranians, we have temporarily permitted them to accept that Russian oil,” she said.
The remarks by Leavitt prompted criticism from the Opposition.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the US statement suggested that the Modi government had “behaved well” by agreeing to stop imports of Russian oil and had been rewarded with permission to buy it for 30 days.
The Congress also criticised the US statement from its official social media account, questioning why the Indian government had not objected to what it described as a “blatant insult to our sovereignty and dignity”.
The party asked why India’s energy decisions appeared to be dictated externally and urged the government to respond.
On March 5, the US had granted Indian refiners a 30-day waiver to buy Russian oil stranded at sea amid the conflict in West Asia.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the decision was a short-term measure to keep oil supplies flowing globally amid disruptions because of the conflict.
He described India as an “essential partner” of the US and said Washington expected New Delhi to increase purchases of American oil. The temporary waiver, he said, would ease pressure on global markets caused by disruptions linked to Iran.
Global oil prices have spiked due to the conflict in West Asia, with escalating tensions raising fears of disruptions to shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. The narrow waterbody connects the Gulf to the Arabian Sea. About 20% of the global petroleum supply passes through the maritime chokepoint.
Amid the conflict, global oil prices had briefly crossed the $100-per-barrel mark on Monday, the highest since July 2022. By Wednesday, the benchmark Brent crude had fallen about $90 per barrel.
The recent waiver follows earlier tensions between the US and India over New Delhi’s purchases of Russian crude oil.
The Trump administration had in August imposed a punitive levy on India for buying oil from Russia amid the Ukraine war. This had taken the combined US tariff rate to 50%.
On February 7, Trump issued an executive order to remove the additional 25% punitive tariff on imports from India over New Delhi’s purchase of Russian oil. This brought the effective US tariff rate on Indian imports to 18% after the interim trade deal was agreed to.
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