Trump claims India will turn to Venezuelan oil instead of importing crude from Iran
Donald Trump stated that India has agreed to purchase oil from Venezuela rather than sourcing it from Iran.
US President Donald Trump claimed on Saturday that India had struck a deal to buy oil from Venezuela instead of Iran. He told reporters aboard Air Force One, “We’ve already got that deal, the concept of the deal, worked out.”
Trump had imposed a 25% tariff in March 2025 on countries, including India, that buy oil from Venezuela. He had also imposed tariffs on India for buying oil from Russia, saying it was “funding” President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine.
Trump has claimed that the US gained control of oil-rich Venezuela after the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro in January.
According to a Bloomberg news report, a fleet of 18 tankers loaded with crude oil departed in January for refineries in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, the highest number since December 2024.
Total crude oil deliveries to the US are expected to reach approximately 275,000 barrels per day, more than double the amount seen in December of the previous year. Shipments to China, which averaged 400,000 barrels per day last year, dropped to zero in January.
PM Modi, Venezuela President Commits to Expanding Cooperation
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez spoke on Friday and agreed to take bilateral relations between the two countries to “new heights” in the coming years.
This was the first phone call between the two leaders since the US issued an arrest warrant for Maduro and his wife on January 3.
“Spoke with the Acting President of Venezuela, Ms. Delcy Rodríguez. We agreed to further deepen and expand our bilateral partnership in all areas, with a shared vision of taking India-Venezuela relations to new heights in the coming years,” PM Modi said in a post on X.
A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said that the two leaders agreed to further deepen and expand the India-Venezuela partnership in all sectors, including trade and investment, energy, digital technology, health, agriculture, and people-to-people ties.
The statement added that they exchanged views on various regional and global issues of mutual interest and emphasized the importance of their close cooperation for the Global South.
Rodríguez also stated that they discussed partnerships in the fields of agriculture, science and technology, mining, and tourism, as well as the pharmaceutical and automotive industries.
