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The Indian-flagged oil tanker Desh Ujaala is pictured in Persian Gulf waters near the Al-Basra Oil Terminal (ABOT), about 50 kilometers off the coast of Iraq’s southern Faw Peninsula, on August 5, 2025.
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US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had told him that New Delhi would stop buying oil from Russia, although the move would take time.
“(Modi) assured me today that they will not buy oil from Russia. This is a big stop.” Trump told the press briefing in the Oval Office. “Now we have to get China to do the same.”
He added that Washington was unhappy with New Delhi’s purchases of Russian crude because it allowed Moscow to continue waging its “ridiculous war” in Ukraine.
However, the US president also said the suspension would not be immediate and there would be “a bit of a process”, without giving a clear timetable.
CNBC reached out to India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for comment, but did not receive an immediate response.
Imports of Russian oil from India are a sticking point in relations between Washington and New Delhi. Trump delivered an additional slap 25% tariff for India in Augustraising the total charge to 50% while India has urged the US. for its trade with Russia.
“If India doesn’t buy (Russian) oil, it makes (ending the war) a lot easier,” Trump said. “They assured me in a short period of time that they would not buy oil from Russia and would return to Russia after the war was over.
on Thursday, Brent Crude Oil Futures rose 0.82% to $62.43 a barrel by 10:31 p.m. ET, while US West Texas Intermediate Futures rose 0.89% to $58.79.
It is India one of the largest buyers of Russian oil. Data from research firm Kpler shows Russia exports about 3.35 million barrels of crude oil per day, with India taking about 1.7 million and China 1.1 million.
New Delhi defended these purchases with Energy Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told CNBC in July that New Delhi helped stabilize world energy prices and was encouraged by the US to do so.
“If people or countries had stopped buying at that stage, the price of oil would have gone up to $130 a barrel. This was a situation where we were advised, including by our friends in the United States, to buy Russian oil, but within the price ceiling,” Puri said.
Russian crude oil sales have been placed under a price ceiling by G7 countries and the European Union following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
That price cap, set at $47.6 a barrel, aims to cap Moscow’s oil export earnings, limiting the country’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine.
