India and the US are in “active negotiations” on Venezuelan oil and Washington is hopeful of “some news” very soon, US ambassador Sergio Gor said on Friday.

He iterated that the Americans had seen India diversify on oil.

Gor was responding to a slew of questions during a short interface with the media at the AI Impact Summit.

Asked how Venezuelan oil would come to India, he replied: “I don’t want to get into it, some of that aspect has not been announced yet. There are active negotiations. (The US) department of energy is speaking to the ministry of energy here; we are hoping to have some news on that very soon.”

The external affairs ministry, however, did not go beyond what New Delhi has been saying over the past couple of weeks on Russian and Venezuelan oil.

Asked at the weekly briefing to comment on Gor’s remarks, ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal iterated that India was open to “exploring the commercial merits of any crude supply options, including from Venezuela”.

As for Russian oil, India again avoided either confirming or denying the US claims about New Delhi having committed to cut back on buying oil from Russia.

Instead, the ministry has repeatedly spoken about how crucial diversification is to energy security, and underscored that the key drivers that dictate India’s energy policy are adequate availability, fair pricing and the reliability of supply.

Gor was asked how the monitoring mechanism relating to India’s direct and indirect oil purchases from Russia, as mentioned in the US executive order on tariffs, would work.

“There’s multiple mechanisms. It’s not just one executive order. That is making its way through the pipeline,” he said.

“The executive order specifically on oil was already signed. So that’s done. Second part of it on the tariffs being rebalanced, there’s multiple things. It’s not just one piece of paper. It’s multiple things, multiple departments…. That will also happen very soon.”

On India’s oil purchases from Russia, Gor maintained that he did not want to give away too much on the private conversations between two leaders but said: “We have seen India diversify on their oil. There is a commitment.”

He added: “This is not about India. The United States doesn’t want anyone buying Russian oil. The President’s been very clear on this. He wants this war to end.

“And, so, anyone who is in a way still involved with that conflict is something the President wants to see come to an end in hopes of peace coming with that.”

On the Quad Summit — which was to be hosted by India last year but got indefinitely postponed as the bilateral relationship with the US worsened — the ambassador said the US was still deeply invested in it.

He underlined that secretary of state Marco Rubio’s first engagement after assuming office had been the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting.

“That sends a message to the world…. Secretary Rubio will be travelling to India very soon… in a matter of months, and so that will be part of the Quad along with many other initiatives,” Gor said.

India attended the Board of Peace meeting in Washington on Thursday as an observer.

Jaiswal sidestepped questions on whether this was an interim arrangement and what conditions India had set for joining the Board of Peace.

He said India had supported the Gaza Peace Plan initiative of President Trump and the ongoing efforts under UNSC Resolution 2803.