India to stop buying Russian oil, Modi agrees, Trump says

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has agreed that his country will stop buying Russian oil, helping to end the war in Ukraine. US President Donald Trump said this yesterday after a phone call with the Indian leader. The United States will immediately cut tariffs on imports from India from 25 to 18 percent, he said. As part of the trade deal, India will gradually reduce tariffs and other barriers on imports from the US to zero, Trump added. Modi later said he was pleased with the reduction in US tariffs and wanted to continue close cooperation.

India is a major buyer of Russian oil, imports of which Western countries have sanctioned in response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine. However, imports of the commodity from Russia to Indian refineries have fallen in recent months amid Delhi's concerns about sanctions violations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in December that the decline was only temporary and that Russia planned to increase its exports.

"He has agreed to stop buying Russian oil and that (India) will start buying much more from the United States and, potentially, Venezuela," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

India has faced additional US tariffs of 25 percent since last August for violating sanctions on Russian oil. The total burden of tariffs imposed by Trump last year therefore rose to 50 percent for India. Trump wrote today that the 25-percent burden would be reduced to 18 percent. An unnamed White House official later clarified and added, according to Reuters, that the US was fully eliminating the 25-percent import surcharge imposed over Russian oil and would cut to 18 percent the previously imposed tariffs that Trump calls reciprocal.

"I am pleased that products made in India will now face a tariff reduced to 18 percent. A big thank you to President Trump on behalf of India's 1.4 billion people for this wonderful announcement," Modi wrote on X.

He added that India fully supported Trump's peace efforts and that cooperation between the two major economies would benefit their people.

Modi also promised today, according to the White House chief, that India would buy significantly more US commodities and products. Trump said these purchases would further increase the commitment to buy "more than $500 billion worth of US energy, technology, agricultural goods, coal and many other products".