U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday mentioned India will purchase Venezuelan oil, serving to to exchange a number of the Russian oil that the world’s third-biggest oil importer buys.
“We have already made that deal, the idea of the deal,” Trump advised reporters aboard Air Drive One as he traveled to his trip residence in Florida from Washington.
Reuters reported on Friday that the USA has advised Delhi it might quickly resume purchases of Venezuelan oil to assist exchange imports of Russian oil, citing three folks conversant in the matter.
India stopped shopping for oil from Caracas final yr after Trump in March imposed a 25% tariff on international locations shopping for Venezuelan oil.
In his feedback on Saturday, Trump mentioned India would purchase Venezuelan oil as an alternative of Iranian crude. Nonetheless, New Delhi stopped loading oil from Iran in 2019 as a consequence of U.S. sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Indian refiners turned to U.S. oil to make up for the lack of Iranian provide, then curbed U.S. purchases and have become the highest purchaser of Russian seaborne oil bought at a reduction after Western nations imposed sanctions on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Trump in August doubled duties on imports from India to 50% to strain New Delhi to cease shopping for Russian oil, and earlier this month mentioned the speed might rise once more if it didn’t curb its purchases.
Nonetheless, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled in January that the extra 25% tariff on Indian items might be eliminated, given what he known as a pointy discount in Indian imports of Russian oil.
The U.S. authorities this week lifted some sanctions on Venezuela’s oil trade to make it simpler for U.S. firms to promote its crude oil.
Trump’s feedback on Saturday appeared to mirror continued enchancment in U.S.-India relations, which have been tense all through the previous yr.
Trump additionally mentioned China might make a cope with the U.S. to purchase Venezuelan oil.
“China is welcome to return in and would make an amazing deal on oil,” Trump mentioned, with out offering any particulars.
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