White House Reiterates India’s Commitment to Stop Purchasing Russian Oil

New Delhi: On February 9, the White House reiterated that India has committed to halt all direct and indirect purchases of Russian oil as part of the recently announced US-India trade framework. The claim, central to Washington’s decision to withdraw a punitive 25% tariff imposed last year, was reiterated in multiple official statements over the past week. 

According to the White House fact sheet released on Monday, US President Donald Trump removed the tariff “in recognition of India’s commitment to stop purchasing Russian Federation oil” and advance a broader interim trade agreement aimed at reducing reciprocal barriers and expanding bilateral commerce. 

The decision forms a key pillar of the evolving trade package under which India is expected to expand imports of American energy, agricultural goods and technology. “India’s willingness to align with the United States to confront systemic imbalances in the bilateral trade relationship and shared national security challenges,” the fact-sheet states as the reason for Trump lowering the 'reciprocal' tariff on India from 25% to 18%.

The White House fact-sheet also asserted that “India has maintained some of the highest tariffs on the United States of any major world economy, with tariffs as high as an average of 37% for agricultural goods and more than 100% on certain autos.” It claims that “India also has a history of imposing highly protectionist non-tariff barriers that have banned and prohibited many U.S. exports to India.”

The Modi government has evaded commenting on the full extent of the commitments outlined by the White House, particularly on ceasing procurement of Russian crude. Instead of taking the subject head on, the foreign secretary only underscored that energy security for 1.4 billion people remains the government’s foremost priority. 

This move has deeper strategic implications for India.

Trump’s executive order explicitly linking tariff concessions to India’s cessation of Russian oil imports introduces long‑term geopolitical and economic risks. Accepting US conditions compromises India’s strategic autonomy and may strain Moscow-New Delhi defence and energy ties built over decades. There is the risk of exposing India to US monitoring mechanisms evaluating compliance with the oil‑import halt.

However, the White House later revised the fact sheet and removed the claim that India will reduce tariffs on certain pulses. The original version of the fact sheet had specifically included pulses along with other items such as tree nuts and soybean oil. In another change, while originally the fact sheet had stated that India committed to buy American products, the word "committed" was later replaced with "intended."

The assertion that India “will remove its digital services taxes,” was also removed, with the revised version only stating that India “committed to negotiate” digital trade rules.

This piece was updated on February 11 to include the White House's revision of the fact sheet.

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