New Delhi. India has indicated that it would continue buying oil from Russia despite threats by US President Donald Trump.

The Indian foreign ministry said its relationship with Russia was “steady and time-tested,” and should not be seen through the prism of a third country.

Addressing a weekly presser on Friday, spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said India’s broader stance on securing its energy needs was guided by the availability of oil in the markets and prevailing global circumstances.

The comments follow an announcement by President Donald Trump that he intends to impose a 25 percent tariff on goods from India plus an additional import tax because of New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.

The threat came as the US president has increasingly soured on Russia for failing to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine and has threatened new economic sanctions if progress is not made.

India bought 68,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Russia in January 2022, but by June of the same year, oil imports rose to 1.12 million barrels per day. The daily imports peaked at 2.15 million in May 2023 and have varied since.

Supplies rose as high as nearly 40 percent of India's imports at one point, making Moscow the largest supplier of crude to New Delhi, the Press Trust of India reported, citing data from Kpler, a data analytics company.

India’s daily oil consumption is pegged at around 5.5 million barrels, of which nearly 88 percent is met through imports.

The country has historically bought most of its crude from the Middle East, but this has changed since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

India, the world’s third-largest crude importer after China and the United States, began buying Russian oil available at discounted rates after the West shunned it to punish Moscow.

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