By Admin 
US President Donald Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on India to buy oil from Russia and also threatened to increase it. When the war started between Russia-Ukraine, America wanted India to buy Russian oil. An old statement of former US Ambassador Eric Garcéeti in India is becoming fiercely viral on social media in which he said that we are appreciating New Delhi for buying Russian oil.
The US wanted India to buy oil from Russia
“India bought Russian oil because we bought oil from Russia at a fixed limit price during Biden’s tenure, former US Ambassador to Delhi Eric Garsety said in 2024. Completed the order.
The then American Treasury Secretary supported
At that time, there was a dispute over Eric Garcheti’s statement. Later, the US Finance Department also issued a statement in early 2024 saying that the US has not asked India to stop crude oil imports from Russia. Garcheti is not the only example that supported India’s oil trade with Russia. In the year 2022, the then American Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that Washington is happy that India should continue to buy as much Russian oil as he wants.
In an interview to the news agency Reuters, Janet Yellen said, “When the European Union stops buying Russian oil, it will be very difficult for Russia to continue sending as much oil as they have been doing so far. They will be looking for a lot of buyers and many countries are dependent on Western countries for this.” However, it is now the same America which is claiming India’s Russian oil imports responsible for the Ukraine War.
Why does India buy Russian oil?
India has become the largest sea oil buyer from Russia, which is facing the ban of Western countries due to Ukraine War. Ever since Russia started attacks on Ukraine, many countries doing business with Europe started cutting due to war. With this, Russia got a big market. This has led to a huge change in energy relations, which has saved billions of dollars and also increased the treasures of Moscow.
Between January and June this year, the Indian refiner imported 1.75 million barrels of Russian oil daily, which is one percent more than last year. In 2023, Russia contributed more than 35 percent to India’s total crude oil imports.
Now Trump threatened to increase the tariff
Now Donald Trump has threatened to increase American tariff on goods coming from India for the purchase of Russian oil. Trump said, “India is not only purchasing a huge amount of oil from Russia, but is also earning huge profits by selling a large part of that oil at high prices in the open market. India does not care about how many people are killing Russia’s war machine in Ukraine. That is why I am going to increase the fees paid to America.”
India has given a strong reply to the criticism being made by the US and European Union for oil imports from Russia. Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement on Monday that India started oil imports from Russia after the Ukraine crisis began, as traditional oil supply was diverted to Europe at that time.
‘An example of double standards targeting India’
Randhir Jaiswal said, “At that time the US itself encouraged India to buy oil from Russia so that the global energy market remains stable. This step was national needs for India, but the countries which are criticizing India today, they are trading with Russia themselves. To target India is an example of inappropriate and double parameters.
‘Western countries are doing business with Russia themselves’
Giving data, the Ministry of External Affairs said that the bilateral trade of goods between the European Union and Russia in 2024 was 67.5 billion euros. Apart from this, in 2023, there was a trade of 17.2 billion euros between the two in services. This trade is more than India-Russia trade. In 2024 Europe imported a record 16.5 million tonnes of LNG (LNG) from Russia, which is more than 15.21 million tonnes of the previous record of 2022.
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