PM Modi has assured me that ‘India won’t buy Russian oil’, claims Donald Trump

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured Donald Trump that India would stop buying Russian oil, the US President said on Wednesday (local time), calling it a ‘big step’. The 79-year-old Republican president made the remarks while speaking to reporters at the White House in Washington. 

However, Trump claimed that PM Modi told him India won’t be able to do it ‘immediately’, but the process is going to be ‘over soon’. Trump said the Indian prime minister a ‘great man’, as called India an ‘incredible country’. 

“Some would be in there for a few months and this was year after year after year and my friend has been there now for a long time and he’s assured me there will be no oil purchases from Russia,” Trump said. 

“He (PM Modi) is not buying his oil from Russia… He can’t do it immediately. It’s a little bit of a process, but the process is going to be over soon,” he noted.

‘Want Putin to stop this’

During his media address, the US president said that all he wants is his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to stop the ‘killing’. He also said that there is a lot of ‘hatred’ between Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stressing that if India stop buying Russian oil, it would help in stopping the Ukraine war. 

“All we want from President Putin is to stop this, stop killing Ukrainians and stop killing Russians because he’s killing a lot of Russians,” he said. “But I think we’ll get them. If India doesn’t buy oil, it makes it much easier…They will not be buying oil from Russia and they’ll go back to Russia after the war is over.”

India’s Russian oil purchase and Trump’s criticism

Since the beginning of the Ukraine war in February 2022, the US-led West has criticised India for buying Russian oil, claiming that the move is fueling the conflict. After his return to the office, Trump has been particularly critical of the move and has also imposed tariffs on India.

However, India has defended its move to buy Russian oil, with the Modi government stressing that it would take all steps to protect its national interests.