Modi avoids meeting Trump in Kuala Lumpur as US President repeats claim on India cutting Russian oil imports

Narendra Modi to attend ASEAN-India Summit virtually; External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will represent the Prime Minister at the East Asia Summit

New Delhi: With US President Donald Trump once again claiming to have received an assurance from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on India slashing oil imports from Russia to “almost nothing” by the end of the year, New Delhi has nixed the possibility of a meeting between the two leaders in Kuala Lumpur next week.

Modi has decided to avoid travelling to Kuala Lumpur for the meeting with ASEAN counterparts, pouring cold water on speculation about a bilateral meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the summit of the Southeast Asian leaders and the related meetings, which Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia will host from October 26 to 28.

“Had a warm conversation with my dear friend, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia. Congratulated him on Malaysia’s ASEAN Chairmanship and conveyed best wishes for the success of the upcoming summits,” Modi posted on X on Thursday after speaking with his counterpart in Kuala Lumpur. “Look forward to joining the ASEAN-India Summit virtually, and to further deepening the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” he added, ruling out the possibility of his travelling to the capital of Malaysia.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will represent the Prime Minister at the East Asia Summit, which will also be held in Kuala Lumpur around the same time

The Prime Minister’s post on the social media platform came just a few hours after the US president reiterated in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday the claim about receiving an assurance from his counterpart in New Delhi about India cutting down on its oil imports from Russia.

Trump, who continued to claim credit for brokering the May 10 ceasefire between the two South Asian neighbours, had also claimed on Tuesday that he and Modi had discussed India “having no war with Pakistan”.

“India, as you know, has told me they are going to stop…it's a process. You can't just stop (buying oil from Russia). By the end of the year, they'll be down to almost nothing,” Trump told journalists at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. He was replying to a question on curbing Russia’s oil export to press it to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine. “India, they've been great. Spoke to Prime Minister Modi yesterday. They've been absolutely great.”

Trump has, over the past few days, repeatedly claimed to have received an assurance from Modi about India slashing oil imports from Russia.

This began on October 15, when he said that the Prime Minister had assured him that India would cut down its oil imports from Russia. New Delhi stated that Modi and Trump had not spoken over the phone that day. A spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, in response to the claim from Washington, D.C., had on October 16 avoided an overtly confrontationist approach and stated that India’s import policies had been entirely guided by the objective of safeguarding the interests of consumers in the country. Without directly clarifying if it would lower the import of oil from Russia, New Delhi had stated that its energy policies included broad-basing and diversifying sources in accordance with market conditions.

Trump reiterated his claim aboard Air Force One on Sunday.

“I spoke to Prime Minister Modi today, as I mentioned before. And we just have a very good relationship. And he's not going to buy much oil from Russia,” Trump said during the White House Diwali celebrations on Tuesday, with India’s ambassador to the US, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, standing near him. “He (Modi) wants to see the war end with Russia-Ukraine. And, as you know, they're not going to be buying too much oil.”

Modi acknowledged the phone call with Trump in a post on X on Wednesday. His post, however, had no reference to any discussion on India’s oil import from Russia.

Trump, during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House on Wednesday, reiterated the claim of receiving Modi’s assurance on India reducing its oil import from Russia.

The US president and his aides have been accusing India and China of funding Russia’s war in Ukraine, as both continued to buy oil from the former Soviet Union nation. The US and the European Union imposed multiple sanctions on Russia after President Vladimir Putin launched “special military operations” in Ukraine in February 2022. India was accused of defying or circumventing the sanctions and raising its oil imports from Russia.

Russia’s share in India’s total crude oil imports rose from less than 2% before the launch of its war in Ukraine in 2022 to around 40% by 2023–24. But, in recent months, Russia’s share had slipped to about 36% of the total oil imports of India.

The US president had, on August 6, announced an additional 25% tariff —on top of 25% levied just about a week back — on all imports from India. The additional 25% tariff had been imposed to prod India to stop buying oil from Russia.

Trump will attend the ASEAN conclaves and the East Asia Summits to be hosted by Ibrahim. A visit by Modi to Kuala Lumpur would have created an opportunity for a bilateral meeting between him and the US president. Officials of the two sides were exploring the possibilities of such a meeting in Kuala Lumpur to ease the stress in the relations between India and the US. But Trump’s repeated claims about Modi assuring him about India cutting down oil imports from Russia put the government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi at the receiving end of the criticism by the Congress and the rest of the Opposition.

Modi’s decision to avoid travelling to Kuala Lumpur, according to the sources in New Delhi, was based on an assessment of the political implications of his meeting with Trump ahead of the Assembly elections in Bihar and the need to avoid risking a mismatch in the accounts of the discussion to be presented to the media by the two sides.

Though Modi was among the first few foreign leaders who had met Trump at White House after his return as the 47th president of the US, the relations between the two nations came under stress as the negotiations for a trade deal could not reach a breakthrough. Apart from Trump’s tariff tirade and his diatribe against India for buying oil from Russia, his growing bonhomie with the civil and military leadership of Pakistan and the US praise for the counterterrorism efforts of Pakistan in complete disregard of the sensitivities of India, and his repeated claims about persuading the two South Asian nations to end the military flare-up between May 7 and 10 also added to the stress in the ties between New Delhi and Washington D.C.