Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal delivers the keynote address at an event titled ‘Energy Security in a Shifting Global Landscape: Building Resilient Energy Markets Across Borders’, in New York, USA, on September 23, 2025.
| Photo Credit: PTI
India expects to increase its energy trade with the U.S. in the coming years, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday (September 23, 2025), adding that India’s energy security would have a “high element” of U.S. involvement going ahead.
Speaking at an event organised by the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) in New York, Mr. Goyal also said that the two countries would be working closely on nuclear power. The Commerce Minister is in the U.S. to take forward talks on a Bilateral Trade Agreement between India and the U.S.
“India is a big player in the energy trade,” Mr. Goyal said. “We are big importers of energy from across the world, including from the U.S. We expect to increase our trade with the U.S. on energy products in the years to come.”
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“And, being close friends and natural partners, our energy security goals will have a very high element of U.S. involvement, which will ensure price stability, diversified sources of energy for India, and help us unlock limitless possibilities with the U.S. on various fronts — energy and beyond,” he added.
This comes at a time when the U.S. has imposed a 25% additional tariff on Indian imports as a “penalty” for importing Russian oil. U.S. President Donald Trump has previously talked about how he wants India to instead buy American oil.
Mr. Goyal said that another area where India and the U.S. plan to work together is nuclear power.
“It is an area we have been talking about for a long time,” he remarked. “There were certain elements that needed to be set right, and I believe we are working in India to support the private efforts in nuclear power.”
Mr. Goyal also had strong words for the European Union regarding its plans to impose a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) tax on imports. The mechanism, set to come into force in 2026, will see a substantial increase in tariffs on European imports from India, among other countries.
“There is a lot of effort to address the impact of climate change through trade measures and we have to be cautious that we don’t allow trade and the fight against climate change to get conflated,” he said. “That has serious risks of actually dissuading countries rather than encouraging countries in joining the movement in addressing climate change.”
He further said that CBAM could isolate the EU and hurt their economy as it would render them uncompetitive in global trade.
“They would actually cause inflation in their own economy, they would land up causing their infrastructure and cost of living to become unviable,” Mr. Goyal added. “Their products will lose market share in exports. And at the same time, this green protectionism is like a trap in which if somebody buries his head, he may find it very difficult to come out of the sand.”
The Commerce Minister has been vocal about his resistance to CBAM for a while now, even threatening retaliatory action by India if Europe goes ahead with its plans.
Mr. Goyal also spoke about the issue of critical minerals, saying that the best way forward for all is to ensure resilient critical mineral supplies and diversify sources to ensure that “trade is not weaponised”.
Published – September 24, 2025 12:10 pm IST
