26.09.2025, New Delhi.
If Bloomberg’s statement about India’s condition for giving up Russian oil is true, then New Delhi presented Washington with the same kind of demand that the USA once placed on the European Union, Rossa Primavera News Agency‘s India Desk wrote.
On September 25, the American news agency Bloomberg reported that during trade talks in Washington, the Indian delegation named a condition necessary for fulfilling the US demand to stop importing Russian oil.
According to the agency, that condition is the lifting of sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, which prevent these countries from actively exporting oil.
This report may well be disinformation, something Bloomberg has often been accused of. However, if this time the agency reported the truth, then the situation looks like a clever move on India’s part.
At first glance, the demand seems quite logical. Indeed, lifting sanctions on Venezuela and Iran would bring significant volumes of oil to the market, making it possible to replace Russian supplies without a sharp price increase.
But in reality, this proposal from New Delhi resembles the same kind of demands the US made on the EU. A few weeks ago, Washington stated that EU and G7 countries should impose tariffs of 50–100% on goods from India and China because those countries purchase Russian oil.
Of course, Brussels will never introduce such tariffs, but by making the proposal, the US gained the ability to claim that it had suggested new anti-Russian sanctions, but the EU refused to adopt them.
The statement allegedly made by the Indian delegation, if true, appears just as unrealistic. Clearly, the US cannot lift sanctions on Iran only three months after carrying out direct airstrikes against it, while Tehran has refused to curtail its nuclear program.
Equally unrealistic is the possibility of lifting sanctions on Venezuela after US President Donald Trump accused its government of aiding drug trafficking and deployed warships against it.
So, India effectively repeated the US maneuver: without risking that its conditions will be met, it can now claim that it made concessions to Washington and accuse the US of inflexibility, giving New Delhi leverage to demand more favorable terms in the trade deal.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
