Indian government officials said on Saturday, August 2nd, that the country will continue purchasing cheap oil from Russia despite a threat of penalties from President Trump. Trump said last week that as part of his latest round of tariffs, he would impose an unspecified additional penalty on India if it did not cut off its imports of Russian crude oil.
On Saturday, two senior Indian officials confirmed that there had been no change in the government’s energy policy. One official stated that the government had issued “no directive to oil companies” to scale back Russian oil imports.
“Our bilateral relationships with various countries stand on their own merits and should not be seen through the prism of a third country,” Indian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said. “India and Russia have a steady and time-tested partnership.”
India has significantly expanded its purchases of Russian oil since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Russia is now the source of more than one-third of India’s oil imports–a sharp rise from less than 1% before the conflict began. Now, India is the second-largest importer of Russian oil, following China.
