India has to open market, stop buying Russian oil: Top US official

New York: US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has announced that India has to open its market for the US and stop buying Russian oil to ‘sort out’ the trade deal.

Lutnick made the remarks appearing on CNBC amid reports that both countries were willing to ease trade tensions.

‘We're going to sort out India. You know, India basically has to open their market, has to stop buying Russian oil,’ Lutnick said.

The Commerce Secretary repeated his claims that before the Russia-Ukraine war India bought ‘1 per cent of their oil was from Russia’.

Following the US sanctions on Russia the quantity of oil that India bought from Russian has risen to 40 per cent, he said adding that ‘they're buying it, refining it, and then selling it to the rest of the world and making a bundle. So, the president (Trump) called nonsense on that and said you got to stop that stuff. So, I think India we'll sort it out once they stop buying Russian oil’.

However, President Trump on Tuesday issued a more conciliatory note on his social media platform saying that two countries are ‘continuing negotiations’ on trade issues, and expressed hope that there would be ‘no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion’.

‘I am pleased to announce that India and the United States of America are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations. I look forward to speaking with my very good friend, Prime Minister Modi, in the upcoming weeks. I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries!’, Trump reportedly said.

Responding to President Trump on X, PM Modi earlier wrote that India and the US are "natural partners" alongside expressing confidence that the trade negotiations would lead to open the limitless potential of the India-US partnership.

The ties between both countries ran into rough weather after President Trump slapped 50 per cent tariff on Indian products.

At the time of announcing the tariff, the US president accused India of financing Russia’s war in Ukraine by buying Russian oil.

Alongside calling the punitive tax ‘unjustified and unreasonable, India made it clear several times afterwards that New Delhi would continue to buy Russian oil.