By Reena Bhardwaj
Washington DC [US], February 4 : As India and US concluded their negotiations on the trade deal, one of the critical factors is India's purchase of Russian Oil. The purchase had invited additional tariffs from the Donald Trump administration.
When the US President announced the completion of a deal, he specifically listed India stopping Russian Oil Imports as a caveat.
Trump, in his Truth Social post, said, "It was an Honor to speak with Prime Minister Modi, of India, this morning. He is one of my greatest friends and, a Powerful and Respected Leader of his Country. We spoke about many things, including Trade, and ending the War with Russia and Ukraine. He agreed to stop buying Russian Oil, and to buy much more from the United States and, potentially, Venezuela. This will help END THE WAR in Ukraine, which is taking place right now, with thousands of people dying each and every week!"
However, the Indian government has not confirmed if it is stopping Russian Oil Purchase. A joint statement on the exact tenets of the deal is awaited.
Top Foreign Policy expert and Director, Centre for New American Security, Lisa Curtis says that it is possible that a different understanding on the issue of Russian Oil purchase.
In an interview with ANI she said, "India clearly is decreasing its level of imports of Russian oil. However, I think we noticed that Prime Minister Modi did not repeat the pledge that President Trump made that India would completely halt Russian oil imports... If President Trump is expecting India to cut off the Russian oil imports completely by a certain time and India maybe has a different understanding of what was committed to... Prime Minister Modi does not want to be seen as caving into U.S. demands regarding its relationship with Russia, which considers a strong historical partner. But he also recognizes how important this is to President Trump, who has been very consistent on wanting to see India reduce and eventually halt its Russian oil imports."
Curtis welcomed the announcement of a deal between the two largest democracies and said that this would be a big boost to relations between India and the US.
"The announcement of the conclusion of the trade deal was very welcome and will provide a major boost to U.S.-India relations... There have been disagreements between the U.S. and India, for example, on the aftermath of the India-Pakistan conflict... In terms of what led to this announcement - it could be many things such as Ambassador Sergio Gor arriving in New Delhi on January 9th, making positive statements over the last several weeks... The second was that India's imports of Russian oil had been going down, particularly in December, which President Trump noticed. The third point would be the fact that India concluded a free trade agreement with the EU just last week, which shows that India has some options on the table for its goods, whcih could have prompted the U.S. to want to speed up its own trade agreement with India," she said.
Earlier, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said that as soon as the final understanding of the deal is inked, joint statement is finalized and technical processes completed, details will be shared.
"Indians are celebrating a trade deal which is under the final stages of detailing between the negotiating teams of both countries. We will shortly be issuing a joint statement by both countries along with the details, which we will be shortly inking between the United States of America and India. As soon as the final understanding of the deal is inked and the joint statement is finalised, technical processes are completed, full details will be shared," he said.
Goyal expressed confidence that the deal will make every Indian proud, protect the interest of every Indian and provide huge opportunities.