US criticizes India over Russian oil purchases, Rubio says they harm ties

Relations between Russia and India are a source of tension in US-India ties, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, according to BBC News. He specifically mentioned India’s purchases of Russian oil. His comments came a day after US President Donald Trump announced that the US would impose a 25% tariff on goods imported from India.

Trump also hinted that he would add further sanctions to the tariff in response to purchases of energy and weapons from Russia. The US move would therefore be the first use of so-called secondary sanctions against Russia’s trading partners. At the same time, he described India as an ally with which the US had traded relatively little in recent years, attributing this to India’s “very high tariffs, among the highest in the world”.

In an interview with Fox News Radio on Thursday, Rubio called India an ally and strategic partner, but added that its purchases of Russian oil were harming ties between New Delhi and Washington.

In a statement on social media, the US president criticised India for buying energy and military equipment from Russia at a time when “everyone wants Russia to stop the killing in Ukraine”.

India said it was committed to “concluding a fair, balanced and mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement”. The United States had a trade deficit of $45.8 billion with India last year. This means the US imported significantly more goods from India than it exported there.

Russian oil accounted for around 35 to 40% of India’s oil imports in 2024, compared with just around 3% in 2021, BBC News reports. This dramatic increase reflects how strongly India has shifted towards cheaper Russian supplies in recent years, despite Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

India has not yet commented on Rubio’s remarks. In the past, however, it has defended its purchases of Russian oil, saying it chooses the cheapest option available to protect millions of poor citizens from rising living costs.

Rubio acknowledged that India has huge energy needs and buys from Russia because of its low prices. At the same time, he stressed that this helps Russia’s war effort in Ukraine. “I think what the president is expressing is clear frustration that, despite the availability of so many other oil suppliers, India is still buying such large quantities from Russia,” the US secretary of state said.

Reuters reported that state-owned Indian refiners, including Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL), Mangalore Refinery Petrochemical Ltd (MRPL) and Indian Oil Corp (IOCL), stopped importing Russian oil over the past week because of smaller discounts.

India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, said in July that India would be able to buy energy from alternative sources if US sanctions affected Russian supplies. He also noted that India had expanded its number of oil suppliers from 27 to 40 countries.