US President Donald Trump has claimed that India has “more or less stopped” buying Russian oil, a statement denied by New Delhi and mocked by the Congress, which accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of staying silent whenever Trump makes such remarks.
Speaking at a bilateral lunch with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House, Trump said, “India is not going to be buying Russian oil anymore. They have already de-escalated, and they have more or less stopped; they are pulling back. They bought about 38 per cent of the oil, and they won’t be doing it anymore.”
Trump claimed that Modi had assured him that India would halt oil purchases from Russia, though he acknowledged that the process “can’t be done immediately.”
“He assured me today that they will not be buying oil from Russia... You can’t do it immediately. It’s a little bit of a process, but the process is going to be over with soon, and all we want from President Putin is... stop this,” Trump said on Wednesday.
He added that if India stopped buying Russian oil, “it makes it much easier to end the conflict,” while also praising Modi as a “great man” and calling India “an incredible country.”
The Congress responded to the US President’s remarks to take a dig at Modi, saying the prime minister “becomes a Mauni Baba” whenever Trump makes controversial statements about India’s foreign or security policy.
“President Trump has yet again stated that he has been assured by his ‘good friend’ that India will cut back on its imports of oil from Russia. But that good friend suddenly becomes a Mauni Baba whenever President Trump says he stopped Operation Sindoor and now when he says that India will reduce its imports of oil from Russia,” Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh posted on X.
The Congress had earlier alleged that the government’s foreign policy has “completely collapsed” and demanded that the Centre take opposition leaders into confidence, either by calling an all-party meeting or holding one-on-one discussions.
The ministry of external affairs (MEA) had earlier denied that any such conversation had taken place between the two leaders.
“Regarding the comment from the US on the energy issue, we have already issued a statement, which you can refer to. As for the telephonic conversation, I can say that there has been no discussion between the Prime Minister and President Trump,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a weekly briefing on Thursday.
He reiterated that India is “broad-basing and diversifying” its energy sourcing to meet domestic requirements and market conditions, adding that the country’s import policies are “guided entirely by national interest.”
Tensions between New Delhi and Washington have been rising after the US doubled tariffs on Indian goods to 50 per cent and imposed an additional 25 per cent duty specifically linked to India’s Russian oil imports.
As Trump made his remarks, India’s trade delegation arrived in Washington for another round of negotiations. The commerce ministry said it could increase crude and natural gas imports from the US worth $12–13 billion “without altering refinery configurations,” reaffirming its commitment to diversifying energy imports “at the right price.”
Trump had earlier claimed that he mediated peace between India and Pakistan and “saved millions of lives.”
“The Prime Minister of Pakistan said I saved millions of lives by interceding... you look at Pakistan and India as an example that would have been a bad one for two nuclear nations,” he said earlier.
But India insists the understanding to cease hostilities was reached directly between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two nations, following its Operation Sindoor launched on May 7 in response to the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians.