US President Donald Trump has claimed that India will “sharply reduce” its imports of Russian oil by the end of this year, as he attempts to bring Moscow to the negotiation table on the ongoing hostilities in Ukraine.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump (Image credit: Reuters)
US President Donald Trump has claimed that India will “sharply reduce” its imports of Russian oil by the end of this year, as he attempts to bring Moscow to the negotiation table on the ongoing hostilities in Ukraine. Speaking to reporters at the White House during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump stressed that the reduction would be “gradual but significant.”
“India, as you know, told me that they would stop. It is a process; you can’t just stop it. But by the end of the year, they will be down to almost nothing. That’s a big thing,” Trump said, adding that the phase-out would be gradual to ensure stability in global markets.
“India has been great. Spoke to Prime Minister Modi yesterday, and they have been absolutely great,” added the US President.
Trump tones down on India
On Tuesday, Trump reiterated that he had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Diwali, adding that their conversation “mostly revolved around trade”. A day later, PM Modi thanked President Trump for Diwali wishes. However, he didn’t provide details on what was discussed during the conversation.
Earlier this week, Trump warned that India would face continued tariffs if it did not stop purchasing oil from Russia. “Then they’ll just keep paying a lot of tariffs if they said that, but I don’t believe they said that,” Trump told reporters. “No, I spoke with Prime Minister Modi of India, and he said he’s not going to be doing the Russian oil thing. But if they want to say that, then they’ll just continue to pay massive tariffs, and they don’t want to do that,” he further claimed.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: dnaindia.com
