will reduce the tariffs it applies to India after New Delhi has agreed to stop buying oil from Russia and start purchasing it from the United States and Venezuela. This was announced this Monday by the American president, Donald Trump, in a message on social networks after having had a telephone conversation with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi.
“We talked about many topics, including trade and the end of the war between Russia and Ukraine. He agreed to stop buying Russian oil and buy much more from the United States and, potentially, from Venezuela,” the White House tenant wrote. The step of the Modi Government, he assured, “will help put an end to the war in Ukraine”, when representatives of kyiv and Moscow plan to hold meetings this week – with American participation – to try to reach a peace agreement.
Trump announced last summer a 25% escalation to double the tariffs that Washington imposes on the South Asian giant such as . After China, New Delhi is the main customer of Moscow’s energy sector, whose oil and gas sales allow it to keep its economy afloat despite the international sanctions imposed following the invasion of Ukraine, which is about to turn four years old.
The president’s announcement comes six days after Modi and European authorities signed an agreement that will eliminate 90% of mutual tariffs.
As reported by a senior White House official to Reuters, the agreement finalized between the two leaders eliminates those punitive 25% tariffs. Furthermore, “out of friendship and respect for the Prime Minister, and at his request, we have reached a trade agreement between the United States and India by which we will impose a reduced reciprocal tariff, (which will go from the current) 25% to 18%,” Trump announced in his message.
New Delhi, in turn, will move to completely eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers on American products, according to Trump. “The prime minister has also committed to buying American at much higher levels, in addition to an investment of more than $500 billion in energy, technology, agricultural products, coal and many other American goods,” he adds.
Trump had already announced on Saturday that India will begin buying crude oil from Venezuela, which last week approved legislation to liberalize its energy sector and allow investment by US companies after the military intervention on January 3, in which US soldiers captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
In his statements on Saturday, the president affirmed that the pact with New Delhi will help India stop acquiring crude oil from Iran, with which Washington is immersed in a diplomatic effort to try to reach an agreement to end the Iranian nuclear program. If a pact is not closed, Trump threatens to attack the Islamic Republic again, after the .
Modi spoke by phone with Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, on Friday, and the two agreed to “deepen bilateral energy cooperation.”
India had already started reducing its purchase of barrels of Russian oil. In January it acquired around 1.2 million barrels per day, a figure that was expected to reduce to one million in February and 800,000 barrels in March, according to a Reuters report. The Asian giant’s exports had been greatly affected since the imposition of punitive tariffs in August doubled its tax to 50%, making it the worst-performing market among emerging economies in 2025.
