While at the UN General Assembly, US President Donald Trump labelled China and India as “the primary funders” of Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine due to both countries’ position as the top buyers of Russian oil. Similarly, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has long accused India of profiteering from these purchases by refining and reselling the oil in the world, condemning it as “arbitrage.”
Back in August, he told CNBC, “They are just profiteering. They are reselling. This is what I would call the Indian arbitrage — buying cheap Russian oil, reselling it as product.” However, in a new interaction with Fox Business, the treasury secretary changed his tune on the matter.
Scott Bessent changes tune on India’s Russian oil purchases
The Donald Trump admin official expressed his belief that India would gradually ease off on its oil purchases from Russia. He then said, “But the perverse thing is that Europe is buying the oil that India refines. They are funding the war against themselves.”
He noted that as India was buying discounted Russian oil, those refined products were ultimately going to Europe given the South Asian nation’s reselling practice elsewhere in the world.
Bessent’s comments align with the Trump-led government’s repeated rants on the issue. Just this week, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright insisted that India can buy Russian oil from any country except Russia. “There are lots of oil exporters in the world. India doesn’t need to buy Russian oil. India buys Russian oil because it is cheaper,” he told ANI at the Foreign Press Centre in New York.
He went on: “America has oil to sell, so does everybody else. We don’t want to punish India. We want to end the war, and we want to grow our relations with India.”
India also shifting focus away from Russian oil?
Consequently, Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, also told reporters in New York that New Delhi was expected to boost its trade with the US on energy products in the future, hinting at measure India may resort to reduce its reliance on Russian trade.
Similarly, just days ago, Bloomberg reported that India had the Trump administration that it was looking at Iran and Venezuela as potential suppliers of crude.