RoydadNaft –  The United States expects that in the near future India will increase imports of US oil, reducing purchases from Russia. This was stated by the U.s’s Treasury Secretary Scott Besant in an interview with the Fox News channel.

“We have introduced a 25% tariff on India in relation to Russian oil. I think we will soon see a change in the balance, namely that they [India] will start buying less Russian oil and more American”, said the US Treasury Secretary. He added that India will start redistributing its oil purchases in the coming weeks or months.

Earlier, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that New Delhi’s purchase of Russian oil is not a “cornerstone” of the Indian economy. “India has not always bought so much Russian oil. It has always had a stable relationship with Russia, but it is in the last two or three years that it has started buying Russian oil at a discount,” Greer emphasized.

In August, Trump signed an executive order entitled “Countering Threats to the United States by the Government of the Russian Federation”, according to which tariffs of 25% were introduced against India. The head of the White House explained the tariffs by saying that “the government of India currently directly or indirectly imports oil from the Russian Federation”.

Earlier, Washington announced the introduction of 25% tariffs on imports from India, which should eliminate the deficit in the trade balance between the two countries. As a result, the total amount of US tariffs on New Delhi reached 50%.

Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal described Washington’s actions as “unfair and unjustified”.