India has “committed” to stop buying Russian oil, and already taken “significant steps” towards it, said U.S. President Donald Trump, rescinding the 25% punitive tariffs imposed on India in August 2025. The startling claim, which was not denied by the government on Saturday (February 7, 2026), was made in an executive order issued simultaneously with the India-U.S. joint statement on an interim trade agreement framework, and appeared to be a condition for the removal of the punitive tariffs.
Mr. Trump also said the tariffs would return if India “resumes” oil imports from Russia, and that India would buy U.S. energy, which former Indian diplomats criticised, calling it “plain bullying” by a “hegemonic America”.
In a separate order, Mr. Trump said that any country engaging in trade with Iran will draw penalty tariffs, formalising a threat he had made in January on social media.
“India has committed to stop directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil, has represented that it will purchase United States energy products from the United States, and has recently committed to a framework with the United States to expand [defence] cooperation over the next 10 years,” said Mr. Trump explaining his decision to cancel the 25% tariffs levied on August 6 last year.
Also read: India-U.S. trade deal updates
‘U.S. official will monitor’
“I have determined that India has taken significant steps to address the [Russian issue] and to align sufficiently with the United States on national security, foreign policy, and economic matters,” he added, deputing Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to “monitor” India’s compliance on Russian oil, and threatening to “reimpose” 25% duties if it did.
Mr. Trump’s orders and claims that India has already accepted his terms, put a dampener over the otherwise celebratory mood in government over hammering out a joint statement to work towards a trade agreement, and both the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of External Affairs refrained from commenting directly.
Slamming the U.S. for the conditional order, former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal said that Washington was introducing “extraneous geopolitical issues” into the bilateral trade deal.
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‘Bullying tactics’
“India’s oil trade with Russia or trade with Iran have nothing to do with a bilateral trade deal with the U.S.,” Mr. Sibal, who was India’s Ambassador to Russia and France, told The Hindu. “Trump is toughening the U.S. position because he did not get satisfaction on [ensuring India stops buying Russian oil]… This is plain bullying,” he added pointing out that the U.S. itself is in talks with Iran.
“The U.S. is a hegemonic power, and has the power to enforce such conditions,” said former Ambassador to the EU and Nepal, Manjeev Puri. “India must always be alert to hegemonic reachouts given its worldview of a multipolar world and its own strategic autonomy,”he said, when asked if India’s diplomatic ties with other countries would be impacted as a result of the move.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s order threatening tariffs for countries that “purchase, import, or otherwise acquire any goods or services from Iran”, added to the restrictions imposed by the U.S. on India, that already include stopping all India’s oil imports from Iran in 2019-2020, and sanctions from April 2026 if India continues to develop the Chabahar port.
“There is a huge disparity in India-U.S. bilateral trade which is roughly $120 billion as against India-Iran bilateral trade (non-oil) which stands at $3-4 billion,” said former Ambassador to Iran Gaddam Dharmendra explaining the government’s reasoning on reducing engagement with Iran. “On the whole, India’s calculus will be to wait out the outcome of U.S.-Russia and U.S.-Iran negotiations,” he said, referring to both the executive orders issued by Mr. Trump on Saturday.
At a press conference on the trade agreement, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal repeatedly refused to comment on the issue of oil imports, deferring to the Ministry of External Affairs. When asked, the MEA spokesperson referred to his statement earlier in the week, that “diversifying energy sourcing in keeping with objective market conditions and evolving international dynamics” is at the core of the government’s strategy.
As The Hindu reported on Saturday (February 7, 2026) however, India’s crude oil imports from Russia have in fact dropped sharply, to a 38-month low in December 2025, and now make up only a quarter of India’s oil imports compared to a high of 40% in 2024. Imports from the U.S. grew nearly 31% over December 2024.
Published – February 07, 2026 09:38 am IST
