- US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the trade deal with India depends on stopping Russian oil imports
- Lutnick stated India increased Russian oil imports from 1% to 40% since the Russia-Ukraine war began
- India maintains it will buy oil from the best deal source and called US tariffs unjustified
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said that Washington will "sort out" the trade deal with India but once New Delhi stops buying Russian oil and opens up their market.
In an interaction with CNBC on Thursday, Lutnick said, "We're going to sort out India. You know, India basically has to open their market, has to stop buying Russian oil." The Commerce Secretary's comments come amid signs of thawing trade tensions between the US and India.
Repeating the claims he has made earlier, Lutnick said India did not buy oil from Moscow before the commencement of the Russia-Ukraine war. He asserted, before the war, "1 per cent of their oil was from Russia" and now because the US has sanctioned it, the quantity has increased to 40 per cent.
"So, they're buying it, refining it, and then selling it to the rest of the world and making a bundle. So, the president (Trump) called nonsense on that and said you got to stop that stuff. So, I think India we'll sort it out once they stop buying Russian oil", Lutnick added.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Trump wrote on social media that the two countries are "continuing negotiations" regarding the trade barriers and that there will be "no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion" in trade talks.
"I am pleased to announce that India and the United States of America are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations. I look forward to speaking with my very good friend, Prime Minister Modi, in the upcoming weeks. I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries!", Trump wrote.
Last month, Trump had slapped an additional 25 per cent tariff on India over and above his 25 per cent reciprocal tariff, as "penalty" for buying Russian oil.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded to his post on X, writing that the two countries are "natural partners" and that he is confident that trade negotiations would help unlock the limitless potential of the India-US partnership and assured that both teams were working to conclude the discussions quickly.
India had termed the penalty as "unjustified and unreasonable" and consistently maintained that the country will buy oil from wherever it gets the best deal from.
A week back, Lutnick had made harsher comments on India to Bloomberg. He said that despite India owning a strong stance against giving in to US pressure to not buy Russian oil, it will eventually come back to make a trade deal with Washington in a few months.
"So I think, yes, in a month or two months, I think India is going to be at the table and they're going to say they're sorry and they're going to try to make a deal with Donald Trump", he had said.
