India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the country will continue buying Russian oil, meaning it will defy U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated calls to halt the purchases.
"Where we get our oil from, especially a high-value foreign exchange product where we spend so much, import highest, we will have to take a call on what is best for us," Sitharaman said in a Friday interview with News18 television. "We will definitely be buying."
The comments are made as New Delhi has kept on purchasing Russian oil, suggesting that it would do so as long as it's financially viable. India has been the largest consumer of seaborne Russian crude as the discounted barrels have helped the world's third largest oil consumer to keep its import bill under check.
The move has infuriated the Trump administration, which had increased tariffs on the South Asian nation to 50%, one of the highest tariffs globally. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in an interview with Bloomberg TV reiterated the White House's request for India to cut purchases of Russian oil.
In another development, Trump berated India and Russia once again on Friday for strengthening relations with China.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Tianjin recently. The leaders discussed cooperation on everything ranging from energy to security.
On India-China's increasing engagement, Sitharaman said New Delhi and Beijing must have serious discussions on market access and non-tariff measures. She said a long-term trading alliance would "take time" to mature and needs "sincere engagement" from both parties, and that the government would be ready to relax investment controls on China.
Responding to White House advisor Peter Navarro's observation that the South Asian nation has become a 'laundromat' for the Kremlin, Sitharaman said that "the international diplomatic community is shocked that such a kind of language is being used on India." She also added that "those in the diplomatic domain will take cognizance or deal with it."
Trump's tariffs would impact more than 55% of India's exports to the U.S. - India's biggest market. Citigroup Inc. estimates the total 50% tariff at a 0.6-0.8 percentage point negative risk to India's annual GDP growth.
Sitharaman said that the government was contemplating measures to favor industry hit by the steep levies. "We cannot leave our exporters high and dry," she said, reporting that a package to ease the tariff burden was on the cards.