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India will buy oil from Venezuela instead of Iran: Donald Trump's big claim
India does not import significant amounts of crude oil from Iran due to US sanctions. Prior to the sanctions, Iran was one of India's top sources of crude oil.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday reportedly claimed India will buy Venezuelan oil, as opposed to purchasing oil from Iran. India does not import significant amounts of crude oil from Iran due to US sanctions, though prior to the sanctions, Iran was one of India's top sources of crude oil.
Trump made the comments while speaking to reporters on Saturday evening about Air Force One, en route to Florida from Washington, DC, Reuters reported.
"China is welcome to come in and make a great deal on oil... We've already made a deal. India is coming in, and they're going to be buying Venezuelan oil as opposed to buying it from Iran. So, we've already made the concept of the deal...," Trump said while speaking to reporters.
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Congress took a dig after Trump's claim. Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared the audio of Trump's remarks on X.
"He [Trump] told us Op Sindoor had been halted. He told us India had stopped buying Russian oil. And now this," the Congress leader said.
"President Trump continues to give us information on what our own government has done or will be doing," Ramesh said on X.
Trump has claimed he is now running Venezuela and has allowed captured president Nicolas Maduro's vice president Delcy Rodriguez to be interim leader so long as she does what he wants -- in particular granting the United States access to Venezuela's vast oil reserves.
Meanwhile, Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodríguez dialed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday to discuss the deepening of bilateral cooperation, including in energy, trade and investment.
This was the first contact from the Venezuelan side with India at the leadership level since the US launched a military strike on Caracas on January 3 and kidnapped President Nicolas Maduro on drug, weapons and narco-terrorism charges.
“Spoke with Acting President of Venezuela, Ms. Delcy Rodríguez. We agreed to further deepen and expand our bilateral partnership in all areas, with a shared vision of taking India-Venezuela relations to new heights in the years ahead,” Modi said on social media after the phone call.
Modi received a call from Rodríguez and the two leaders agreed to “further expand and deepen the India-Venezuela partnership in all areas, including trade and investment, energy, digital technology, health, agriculture and people-to-people ties”, the external affairs ministry said in a readout.
Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked India's oil purchases, which is dominated by Russia, and imposed tariffs on Indian imports over the same - a move New Delhi slammed as "unjustified".
