Russia lost an oil client, which is India: What Trump said before meeting Putin
Donald Trump's remarks come days after he doubled the tariffs on Indian imports citing its oil trade with Moscow. The additional duties are yet to take effect.
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Alaska on Saturday and held talks the Republican described as "extremely productive". While Trump said the two leaders were yet to reach a deal in terms of the Ukraine crisis, Putin said him and his American counterpart have reached an “understanding” on the conflict.
As Trump departed for Alaska to meet his Russian counterpart earlier today, he spoke about his expectations from the meeting. In a conversation with Fox News, Trump was asked if there was an economic side to Putin coming to the table for talks, to which the US President mentioned India, saying Russia lost an oil client - India.
Follow live updates on the US-Russia Summit here.
"Well, they lost an oil client so to speak, which is India, which was doing about 40% of the oil, China as you know is doing a lot...and If I did secondary sanctions, it would be devastating from their standpoint.. If I have to do it, I'll do it, may be I won't have to do it," Trump said during the interview to Fox News from the Air Force One he boarded from Washington.
Trump's remarks come days after he threatened a 50% tariff on Indian imports citing New Delhi's oil trade with Russia. “I determine that it is necessary and appropriate to impose an additional ad valorem duty on imports of articles of India, which is directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil," Trump wrote in the executive order he signed, hiking up the tariffs for India.
Half of these announced duties have come into effect, and the remaining are set to come into force on August 27.
‘No deal until there’s a deal’
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin's much-anticipated talks in Alaska came in the backdrop of efforts to end the Ukraine crisis with a peace agreement. While Putin said an “understanding” was reached during the talks, Trump has clarified that there has been no deal struck so far.
"There were many, many points that we agreed on. I would say a couple of big ones that we haven't quite got there, but we've made some headway," Trump said, adding, “there's no deal until there's a deal.”
In a brief media interaction following the nearly three-hour talks in Alaska, both Trump and Putin suggested that a headway was made on some issues, but divulged no details and took no questions.
During the media interaction, Putin said the conflict between Russia and Ukraine would not have started had Trump been President in 2022. He also thanked Trump for the “friendly tone of conversation” and warned the European Union not to “torpedo” the progress in the talks in Alaska.
