NEW DELHI: India is open to buying oil from nations including Venezuela, depending on commercial viability, an Indian foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.
“There is a history of engagement with Venezuela. We have a long-standing energy partnership with them, and we remain open to exploring options of availability of crude oil from Venezuela and other places, depending on its commercial viability,” Randhir Jaiswal said at a press conference.
U.S. President Donald Trump last week agreed to reduce tariffs on Indian goods to 18 per cent from 50 per cent as part of a broader
trade deal
and claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured him that the South Asian nation will stop buying Russian oil.
Trump also said India will buy more oil from the U.S. and ‘potentially Venezuela’.
Modi, however, did not comment on India’s plan to halt Russian oil imports in his message welcoming the trade deal.
Jaiswal said ensuring the energy security of 1.4 billion Indians is the “supreme priority” of the government.
“Diversifying our energy sourcing in keeping with objective market conditions and evolving international dynamics is at the core of our strategy to ensure this. All of India’s actions are taken and will be taken with this in mind,” he said, in response to a question if India plans to halt Russian oil imports.
India, the world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer, had twice in the past halted imports from Venezuela under pressure from sanctions in 2019-20 and 2023-24.
