New Delhi: Be it the India-Pakistan military conflict last May or the yet-to-be finalised bilateral trade deal, Donald Trump and his aides have been making some bizarre claims over months.
Recently, the United States proposed a bill to levy 500% tariff on countries that continue to purchase Russian oil. That includes India, one of the biggest importers of Russian oil.
On Friday, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India was aware of the proposed bill, and “closely following” developments.
Jaiswal reiterated India’s long-standing position on energy sourcing, stressing that New Delhi’s decisions are driven by energy security needs and market realities.
“Our position on the larger question of energy sourcing is well known. In this endeavour, we are guided by the evolving dynamics of the global market
and by the imperative to secure affordable energy for our 1.4 billion people through diverse sources to meet the energy security needs,” the MEA statement said.
US Senator Lindsey Graham said earlier this week that US President Donald Trump has given a green light to the bipartisan Russia Sanctions Bill, which would give leverage to stop India, China and Brazil from purchasing Russian oil and punish the countries fuelling Putin’s ‘war machine’.
“After a very productive meeting today with President Trump on a variety of issues, he greenlit the bipartisan Russia sanctions bill that I have been working on for months with Senator Blumenthal and many others. This will be well-timed, as Ukraine is making concessions for peace and Putin is all talk, continuing to kill the innocent. This bill will allow President Trump to punish those countries who buy cheap Russian oil fuelling Putin’s war machine,” Graham said in a post on X.
The bill, titled ‘Sanctioning of Russia Act 2025’, seeks to impose several provisions, including penalties on individuals and entities, an increase of the rate of duty on all goods and services imported from Russia into the United States to at least 500 per cent relative to the value of such goods and services.