India’s US envoy speaks to Senator Lindsey Graham amid tariff turmoil

New Delhi: India’s ambassador to the United States, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, has met influential US Senator Lindsey Graham amid the stalemate in trade talks between the two countries and the Trump administration’s decision to impose penal tariffs on countries buying Russian oil.

“Spoke to Senator Lindsey Graham and shared with him the Indian perspective on our energy security, including increasing energy trade with the United States,” Kwatra said in a post on X.

This comes a day after Graham said India must help end the war in Ukraine. “As I have been telling my friends in India, one of the most consequential things they could do to improve India-U.S. relations is to help President Trump end this bloodbath in Ukraine,” the Republican Senator wrote in a post on X.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15 for talks on ending the war in Ukraine. The meeting coincides with the US President’s deadline for Putin to end the war or face more sanctions.

By agreeing to meet with the US President, Putin – albeit temporarily – removes the danger of new and severe US energy sanctions. The Western countries see oil as the main source of the Kremlin’s revenues, which fuel Russia’s military production machine.

As far as New Delhi’s stand is concerned, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri recently said that India has diversified its sources for buying oil in the global market, due to which the government is not “unduly worried” over any US crackdown on Russia’s oil exports.

The minister explained that India currently buys oil from 40 nations, as compared to 27 countries in 2007, and the global market is well-supplied.

“Many countries, including Brazil, Canada and others, are ramping up output. I am not unduly worried about supplies as of now. We have diversified our sources,” Puri said.

The minister’s statement came against the backdrop of Trump announcing that secondary sanctions would be imposed on countries buying Russian oil.

Puri further stated that India’s oil purchases from Moscow had played an important role in stabilising prices in the global market.

He said crude oil prices could have skyrocketed to $130 per barrel in the absence of India-Russia oil trade when the Ukraine war began in 2022.

Prior to the Russia-Ukraine war, India used to buy a mere 0.2 per cent of its crude oil imports requirement from Moscow. This, today, stands close to 40 per cent.

The minister said that Russian crude was always under a price cap of $60 per barrel but never under sanctions.

India on Friday firmly denied media reports suggesting that New Delhi has paused discussions with the United States regarding defence procurements amid the stalemate in trade talks.

IANS