India Disputes US Trade Deal Claims, Defends Russian Oil Purchases

New Delhi pushed back hard on Friday against what it called a mischaracterization of trade talks with Washington, insisting that India and the United States have come close to a bilateral agreement on multiple occasions over the past year. The Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal made the statement at a weekly press briefing, responding to recent comments by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about the state of negotiations between the two countries. Jaiswal said the two nations had committed to negotiating a trade deal as far back as February of the previous year, and that both sides had held numerous rounds of talks aimed at reaching an agreement that would benefit both economies.

The timing of India's defense of its negotiating record comes as the Trump administration and its allies in Congress are moving forward with legislation that would impose steep penalties on countries that continue buying Russian oil. Senator Lindsey Graham announced this week that President Trump had approved a bipartisan sanctions bill that would allow tariffs as high as 500 percent on goods and services imported from Russia. Graham explicitly named India, China, and Brazil as countries the bill is designed to pressure, saying the tariffs would give Trump leverage to stop them from purchasing what he called cheap Russian oil that finances Putin's war effort in Ukraine.

India's response to the proposed tariff threat was measured but firm. Jaiswal acknowledged that New Delhi is aware of the bill and is monitoring it closely, but he reiterated India's long-standing position on energy sourcing. The country's decisions on where to buy oil, he said, are driven by the need to secure affordable energy for 1.4 billion people and by the realities of global energy markets. He did not back down from India's purchases of Russian crude, framing them instead as a practical necessity shaped by both economic need and geopolitical circumstance.

The standoff reflects a deeper tension in the India-US relationship. Modi and Trump have spoken by phone several times over the past year, according to the MEA, covering various aspects of what both countries describe as a wide-ranging partnership. Yet the trade negotiations that were supposed to cement that partnership have stalled, and now the United States is considering using tariff threats as a tool to reshape India's energy policy. India's insistence that it has repeatedly come close to a trade deal suggests frustration with the pace and terms of those discussions, while its defense of Russian oil purchases signals that New Delhi will not simply comply with American pressure on geopolitical grounds.

The proposed Sanctioning of Russia Act of 2025, as the bill is formally titled, would impose penalties on individuals and entities doing business with Russia, and would raise the duty rate on all Russian goods and services imported into the United States to at least 500 percent. Graham indicated the bill could come to a bipartisan vote as early as the following week, suggesting momentum behind the measure. For India, the stakes are clear: either find a way to reduce its reliance on Russian oil or face the prospect of steep tariffs on its own exports to the United States. The country has shown no sign of backing down, and the question now is whether the two sides can find common ground on trade before the tariff legislation becomes law.