External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar slammed the US officials on Saturday who have been criticising India for buying oil from Russia amid the Ukraine war.
Jaishankar said that the allegations of profiteering from the trade are “funny”, adding that the US also buys oil from Russia.
“It’s funny to have people who work for a pro-business American administration accusing other people of doing business,” said the Union Minister at an event in Delhi.
“If you have a problem buying oil or refined products from India, don’t buy it. Nobody forces you to buy it. Europe buys, America buys, so you don’t like it, don’t buy it,” he said during The Economic Times World Leaders Forum 2025.
US President Donald Trump and his administration have been critical of India for buying oil from Russia. Trump had announced additional tariffs of 25 per cent along with import tariffs on India in an attempt to discourage New Delhi from buying oil from Moscow.
This week, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro launched a sharp attack on India and accused New Delhi of acting as a “laundromat for the Kremlin.”
His comments come just days after he labelled India the “Maharaja of tariffs” while defending US President Donald Trump’s decision to double duties on Indian imports.
Speaking about his visit to Russia last week, where he met President Vladimir Putin, Jaishankar said, “We have a practice of annual summits with the Russians. We are planning one at the end of the year. It’s an annual exercise. That’s how the relationship grows. A lot of it was devoted to what’s happening in our relationship, where we are going, what we will do, things like that.”
“There were some good developments. Our trade has grown a bit. We would like to grow it further. There’s been some mobility of people. We would like to see that increase. We want more market access in Russia, things like that…,” he added.
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