Mumbai. US President Donald Trump has been constantly pressuring India to stop buying crude oil from Russia. After Trump imposed a 25 percent penalty on India, the tariff has gone up to 50 percent. He has criticized India and China as the main reasons for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to him, if these two countries stop buying oil, the war will end immediately.

Trump has publicly accused India of indirectly financing the war by buying oil from Russia.TAG_OPEN_p_17 New Delhi: India’s oil imports from Russia declined in September, according to data released by the US government. This has now raised the question of whether India has reduced imports under pressure from the Trump administration or due to some other reason.

Decrease in imports in September

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According to a report by global real-time data company {{TAG_OPEN_p_15 TAG_OPEN_em_11}}Kepler, India imported an average of 1.60 million barrels of oil per day from Russia in September. This is about 5.4 percent less than August. State-owned companies alone imported 605,000 barrels per day, 32 percent less than the April-August average.

What is the effect of Trump’s pressure? However, experts say the decline in September is not a direct result of pressure from Trump.
The oil supply agreement is usually 6-8 weeks in advance. Therefore, the reduction in September is on the basis of the agreement reached in July-August. Trump has been criticizing India since July and announced a penalty in August. Therefore, it is estimated that the direct effect of the pressure can be seen only from October.

Other reasons
} The cost of transporting goods from Russia to India has increased instead of decreasing. The discount on the purchase of oil has also been reduced. At the same time, state-owned companies see the need to diversify supply as the risk of US pressure has increased. All these factors are said to have led to a decrease in imports.

In this way, India has reduced Russian oil imports, but it is not clear whether this is a direct result of Trump’s threat or just a result of economic reasons.TAG_OPEN_p_12 Only supplies coming in after October will show the real picture.