US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured him that India will stop buying Russian oil, months after Trump imposed punitive tariffs over the purchases. “He’s assured me there will be no oil purchased from Russia,” Trump said. “You know, you can’t do it immediately. It’s a little bit of a process, but the process is going to be over with soon,” he added.
Responding to ANI’s question whether he views India as a reliable partner, Trump said: “Yeah, sure. He’s (PM Narendra Modi) a friend of mine. We have a great relationship.. I was not happy that India was buying oil. And he assured me today that they will not be buying oil from Russia. That’s a big stop. Now we’ve got to get China to do the same thing.”“He’s a friend of mine. We have a great relationship. He just said that two days ago, as you know,” the Republican chief added.Trump made the remarks during a joint news conference with FBI director Kash Patel at the Oval Office.The US President also criticised India’s previous oil imports from Russia and said: “We were not happy with him buying oil from Russia, because that lets Russia continue on with this ridiculous war, where they’ve lost a million and a half people, by the way. Russia has lost a million and a half people, soldiers mostly.”He called the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict unnecessary, sayin, “This is a war that should have never started, but it’s a war that Russia should have won in the first week, and they’re going into the fourth year.”“And I want to see it stop. So I was not happy that India was buying oil,” Trump added.On being asked about the recent meeting between PM Modi and US ambassador-designate Sergio Gor, Trump said they were “great” and hailed PM Modi’s persistent leadership.“I think they were great. Modi is a great man. He (Sergio Gor) told me that he (PM Modi) loves Trump.I have watched India for years. It’s an incredible country and every single year you would have a new leader. Some would be in there for a few months and this was year after year after year and my friend has been there now for a long time,” Trump said.Trump further said that he wanted Putin to stop the war, which has killed thousands, and claimed it would become easier to end the conflict if India stops buying Russian oil.“All we want from President Putin is to stop this, stop killing Ukrainians and stop killing Russians because he’s killing a lot of Russians.The hatred of the two leaders (Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin) is a lot, it’s an obstacle. But I think we’ll get them. If India doesn’t buy oil, it makes it much easier. They will not be buying oil from Russia and they’ll go back to Russia after the war is over.”Trump again claimed he prevented India-Pakistan nuclear conflict, saying that Prime Minister of Pakistan had recently told a group that Trump had saved millions of lives by averting a war. “The Prime Minister of Pakistan got up the other day, said so beautifully, he says, you saved millions of lives. He told that to a group of people right in this office. He said the President saved millions of lives. What he’s referring to is the fact that would have been with India a nuclear war. That was getting very close. Seven aircraft were shot down,” he said.
