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New Delhi: The Congress party on Tuesday questioned the Center over US President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the Indian government has assured him of cutting oil imports from Russia because it was ‘assisting’ in maintaining armed hostilities against Ukraine.
Congress communication in-charge Jairam Ramesh claimed that the US President is boasting about assurances from the Modi government on stopping Russian oil purchases, but the Ministry of External Affairs is in ‘denial mode’.
Addressing the X, the Congress general secretary said, “The issue of India’s oil imports from Russia has been raised by President Trump three times in the last five days. And there is no doubt that he will keep raising this number as he prepares to meet President Putin in Budapest at the end of the week.”
Congress’s latest attack on the Center comes in the backdrop of Donald Trump’s recent claim that India will continue to pay heavy tariffs if it continues to buy oil from Russia.
A day earlier, when the US President was asked while on board Air Force One about India ‘rejecting’ his appeal on Russian oil purchases, he had warned of action in the form of higher tariffs.
Jairam Ramesh took to Twitter to take a dig at the Prime Minister and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and said the Trump administration has ignored his denials.
He said, “President Trump says he has spoken to his good friend Mr. Modi and India has promised to stop these imports. The State Department says it is unaware of such conversations, but President Trump has clearly rejected the State Department’s attempts to deny it.”
The controversy over India’s oil purchases from Russia began when the Trump administration accused India of ‘financing’ the Ukraine war through purchasing cheap crude.
Relations between the two countries deteriorated recently when the United States imposed a 25 percent tariff on imports of Indian goods, and a few days later went a step further by imposing an additional 25 percent duty.
–IANS