New Delhi: US President Donald Trump claimed on Saturday that India will soon buy Venezuelan oil.
“We’ve already made that deal, the concept of the deal,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he travelled to his Florida vacation home from Washington DC.
Trump actually said India would buy Venezuelan oil instead of Iranian crude. However, according to Reuters, India stopped acquiring oil from Iran in 2019 due to US sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Reuters reported that the Trump administration has told New Delhi it could resume purchases of Venezuelan oil to help replace imports of Russian oil, citing people familiar with the matter.
New Delhi is yet to respond to Trump’s claim.
India had stopped purchasing oil from Ven
ezuela last year after Trump imposed a 25% tariff on countries buying Venezuelan crude, the report added.
Indian refiners had turned to US oil to compensate for the loss of supply from Iran. Thereafter, India reduced American oil purchases and became the top buyer of Russian oil which they acquired at a discounted rate after Western nations imposed sanctions on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
Last August, Trump imposed an extra 25% tariff on imports from India — over and above the global 25% duties announced earlier – as a penalty for New Delhi continuing to buy Russian oil.
Earlier this month, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted that the additional 25% tariff on Indian goods could be removed as he said there had been a sharp reduction in Indian imports of Russian oil.
Now, the Trump administration wants India to purchase oil from Venezuela, which the US has been controlling since capturing President Nicolas Maduro and calling the shots in the governance of the South American nation.
That would lead to a reduction on India’s dependence on Russian crude.
Trump also said China could make a deal with the US to buy Venezuelan oil.