US President Donald Trump has warned that India would “continue to pay massive tariffs” if it persists in buying Russian oil, while reiterating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured him that New Delhi would halt such imports.

The US has imposed up to 50 per cent tariffs on Indian exports as part of punitive measures against New Delhi’s continued purchase of Russian oil.

Trump had on Thursday morning (India time) claimed Modi had during a phone conversation told him India would stop buying Russian oil, but New Delhi has declined to confirm either the promise or the conversation.

Asked by reporters on Sunday whether India had indeed said it was unaware of his talks with Modi on Russian oil, Trump said he did not believe India had said that.

“If they said that… but I don’t believe they said that. I spoke with Prime Minister Modi of India and he said he is not going to be doing the Russian oil thing,” Trump said aboard Air Force One.

“But if they want to say that, they are going to continue to pay massive tariffs and they don’t want to do that.”

A team of negotiators, led by commerce secretary Rajesh Agarwal, flew to the US last week to speed up a bilateral trade agreement pivoted on bringing the tariffs down.

Trump’s latest comments have, however, made it clear that a trade deal now hinges on India agreeing to taper off its Russian oil purchases. On Monday, the European Union announced that it would stop buying Russian gas from January 1, 2028.

Trump has over the past four days repeated multiple times his claim about Modi’s purported promise to stop the import of Russian oil.

After Trump’s initial comments on Thursday, a ministry of external affairs spokesperson had said he was unaware of any telephone conversation between Modi and Trump.

He had added that the government’s policy was to safeguard the interests of Indian consumers. The Centre maintains that the import of discounted Russian oil is helping consumers.

There has been no let-up in Russian oil purchases so far. Tapering the purchases off would take at least a couple of months as Indian refiners have already placed orders that would be delivered in November and early December.

India’s crude imports from Russia in October were around 1.8 million barrels per day (BPD), up by 250,000 BPD month on month and 50,000 BPD year on year.

Sindoor, jets

Trump has also repeated, for the umpteenth time, that he resolved the May 7-10 military conflict between India and Pakistan, PTI reported.

He has reiterated that seven jets were shot down during the conflict, without specifying which nation they belonged to.

“The threat of tariffs, as an example, kept India and Pakistan, two nuclear nations, from going at it. They were going at it,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News, broadcast on Sunday.

“Seven planes were shot down; that’s a lot. And they were going at it. And that could have been a nuclear war.”

The US President said he had threatened to impose 200 per cent tariffs on India and Pakistan, which forced them to stop the war.

He said Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had praised him for saving millions of lives.