US Permission in Hand, India Now Keen to Buy Iran Oil; Betrayed Again, Ladakhis Plan Protest; Schoolboy Question on Modi's Missing Press Conferences Stumps BJP MP
A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by MK Venu, Pratik Kanjilal, Sidharth Bhatia, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Seema Chishti, and Tanweer Alam | Contributing writers: Kalrav Joshi, Anirudh SK
If you like our work and want to support us, then do subscribe. Sign up with your email address by clicking on this link and choose the FREE subscription plan. Do not choose the paid options on that page because Stripe – the payment gateway for Substack, which hosts The India Cable – does not process payments for Indian nonprofits.
Our newsletter is paywalled but once a week we lift the paywall so newcomers can sample our content. To take out a fresh paid subscription or to renew your existing monthly or annual subscription, please click on the special payment page we have created – https://rzp.io/rzp/the-india-cable.
Snapshot of the day
June 22, 2026
Siddharth Varadarajan
As Iran and the US ended their first round of talks in Geneva today, the love affair between the Trump administration and Field Marshal Asim Munir of Pakistan shows no signs of flagging. Let’s listen in to US Vice President JD Vance:
“As recently as 2009, Iranian oil accounted for 14 percent of India’s crude imports, making Iran its second-largest supplier,” reports Alex Traveli. “By 2019, under pressure from President Trump during his first term, India had stopped buying Iranian oil altogether.” With reserves apparently down to nine days worth, the US-Iran deal – which will lift the US ‘ban’ on Iranian oil sales – could not have come at a better time for India.
India’s oil imports from Russia are on track to hit a new record in June, as refiners continue to rely heavily on discounted Russian crude after supply disruptions in West Asia caused by the regional conflict. According to preliminary vessel-tracking data from commodity analytics firm Kpler, India imported an average of 2.6 million barrels of Russian oil per day in June so far. That accounts for 53.5% of the country’s total crude imports during the period. For the full month, Russian imports are expected to exceed 2.35 million barrels per day, which would be the highest monthly level ever recorded. The previous record was 2.2 million barrels per day in May 2023 – which is in sharp contrast to that of February, when Russian oil supplies were impacted due to the sanctions imposed by the US, indicates data from trade intelligence firm Kpler.
Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Delhi today. Wang is in India for a meeting of BRICS NSAs, as is Ghadir Nezamipour, Deputy Secretary for Defence Affairs of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
Twelve Indian workers and one Pakistani were killed in an accident at a Qatari gas plant today.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has begun his first overseas trip since taking office in February, visiting Malaysia and China. The trip signals Rahman’s outreach to China as an indication of his foreign policy priorities, as he bypasses India, which has traditionally been the destination for such inaugural visits. Rahman is also set to attend the World Economic Forum’s
