WASHINGTON: Indian officials said they would continue to buy Russia oil despite the threat of sanctions that the United States President Donald Trump said he would impose, New York Times reported on Saturday.
Reuters could not immediately check the report.
The White House, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas have not immediately responded to requests for comments.
Trump on Wednesday imposed a 25% rate on goods imported from India from August 1 as well as additional sanctions, potentially between relations with the most populous democracy in the world.
Trump said in a social position that India would be faced with additional sanctions for the purchase of Russian weapons and oil. However, he later said that he did not care what India was doing with Russia.
Trump told journalists on Friday that he had heard that India would no longer buy Russia oil.
According to the NYT report, two senior Indian officials said that there had been no change in policy, who added that an official said that the government had “given the oil companies” to reduce Russia imports.
Reuters had previously pointed out that Indian state refiners had stopped buying Russian oil last week when the discounts shrinked in July.
On July 14, Trump threatened 100pc of prices on countries that buy Russian oil unless Moscow reaches a major peace agreement with Ukraine. Russia is the best supplier in India, responsible for around 35% of the overall supplies in India.
Trump said on Monday that most partners who are not negotiating separate trade agreements would soon face 15-20pc prices on their exports to the United States, well above the broad price of 10pc he imposed in April. Its administration will soon inform some 200 countries of their new rate of “global price”.
