Trump Claims Modi Assured Him India will “Not be Buying Oil From Russia”; MEA Says “Not Aware of any Call Between Trump and Modi”; Hindutva Fantasies About the Taj Mahal

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Snapshot of the day

October 16, 2025

Sidharth Bhatia

India’s foreign ministry said it’s unaware of a conversion between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, hours after the US leader told him that India will stop buying oil from Russia, a move Trump described as a ‘big step’ in efforts to isolate Moscow economically. “To the best of our knowledge, I am not aware of any conversation between PM Modi and President Trump yesterday,” Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters at a briefing in New Delhi on Thursday.

The “breaking story” that Trump flagged at the White House yesterday when asked by an ANI reporter about US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor’s recent conversations was that Modi “assured me today that they will not be buying oil from Russia”. New Delhi is “not going to buy – they assured me they will – within a short period of time, they will not be buying oil from Russia and they’ll go back to Russia after the war is over,” the president explained. He and “great man” Modi remain ‘friends’ and “have a great relationship”. Modi “loves Trump”, but “I don’t want you to take that any different. I don’t want to destroy his political career, OK.” The president also thought it is a good thing that the prime minister has remained in power for 11 years now.

Asked about Trump’s remarks, the MEA in a carefully worded statement and casting doubts said this morning that “ensuring stable energy prices and secured supplies have been the twin goals of our energy policy,” without explicitly rejecting his comments, as it seeks to resolve a bruising trade dispute with Washington by avoiding a public confrontation. This includes broad-basing our energy sourcing and diversifying as appropriate to meet market conditions. Its reference to ‘diversifying as appropriate’ has been seen as an implicit sign that India is looking to buy less Russian oil – seaborne batches of which it has been the largest buyer since the Ukraine war – and indeed real-time data has shown that Indian state refiners reduced their purchases of Russian oil by 45% between June and September, while Reliance and Nayara on the other hand increased their orders. This time, the government’s response was notably more restrained. Unlike a few months ago – when it firmly pushed back against a similar claim by Trump about Russian oil purchases – Jaiswal chose a non-confrontational approach. His statement stopped short of directly confronting the president, offering instead a carefully worded denial that avoided open disagreement.

Amidst this, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Thursday he is confident India will continue buying the nation’s crude despite US pressures, as it is economically viable. According to him, India is mainly paying in roubles for Russian oil, but has started payments in the Chinese currency yuan.

Even as Trump ratchets up pressure on New Delhi to shift toward American oil, “India’s thirst for Russian crude barely eased in September and is almost certain to rise again in October”, reports The Telegraph.

Meanwhile, the Congress has seized upon Trump’s statement, with Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi charging that it – in addition to Modi’s absence from the Gaza ‘peace’ summit and public silence on Trump’s ceasefire mediation claims – shows that the prime minister is “frightened of Trump”.

Bloomberg reports that executives from four companies representing over 80% of India’s oil-processing capacity said their initial assessment pointed to a likely