Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limited All rights reserved. Shan Li , Jiahui Huang , The Wall Street Journal 4 min read 24 Oct 2025, 13:32 IST India and China together buy about five out of every six barrels of crude that Russia exports, and both have been hit by Trump with high tariffs. Summary New Delhi and Beijing have so far resisted US calls to stop buying, but buying Russian by far will be tough. The two Asian powers together buy about five out of every six barrels of crude oil that Russia exports, and both have been hit by Trump with high tariffs, leading to strained relations with Washington. India and China cannot easily ignore the far-reaching sanctions – especially India, which is holding out hope for a rapprochement with Trump. The new measures target Russia’s Rosneft and Lukoil as well as nearly three dozen of their subsidiaries. The US has said it could ban foreign countries or companies from doing business with the sanctioned Russian companies and cut them off from much of the international financial system. Big banks and conglomerates in China and India could not survive long if they lost access to US banks and dollars. But the Treasury Department announcement was ambiguous, saying simply that those dealing with Rosneft and Lukoil could risk exposure to sanctions in certain cases. View full image A refinery in Mangaluru, India. Russia supplies about a third of the country’s oil demand. Analysts said India would accelerate efforts to diversify its oil supplies as it watched Trump tighten his crackdown. “Countries are not going to make any dramatic shifts because Mr. Trump is waking up on the wrong side of the bed,” said Harsh V. Pant, head of strategic studies at the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi think tank. In Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokesman denounced Trump, saying his moves were unilateral and had no basis in international law. India’s oil ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Since the European Union cut off most crude oil imports from Russia in late 2022, China has received 47% of Russia’s crude and India has taken 38%, according to the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research. China is importing Russian crude at a rate of about $3 billion a month this year, accounting for about a fifth of its total crude imports, while Russia supplies about a third of India’s oil demand. Much of it comes at a sharp discount to the global price due to other countries’ sanctions against Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. View full image. China spent months building up supplies. However, it also cannot escape the impact of Trump’s sanctions, said Muyu Xu, senior crude analyst at data firm Kpler. “The Chinese oil majors will probably stop buying Russian oil,” Xu said. The Trump administration has been pushing New Delhi to freeze its Russian oil purchases, aiming to choke off Moscow’s war funding. In August, the US imposed a 50% tariff on Indian goods, citing its continued Russian oil imports. India, whose growing economy needs more oil, has resisted US pressure as it has rebuilt its supply chain since the Ukraine war to rely on Russian crude. Last week, Trump said India had pledged to stop buying Russian oil, a claim Indian officials quietly disputed while avoiding contradicting the president publicly. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pursuing two goals: to strike a trade deal with Washington to lower tariffs and to avoid disruption of energy supplies. India could buy more barrels from the Middle East, Latin America and the US – preferably in a gradual transition, analysts said. “Whether India reduces its dependence will largely depend on the strength of US pressure and how much volatility India is willing to absorb,” Sumit Ritolia, an analyst at Kpler, wrote in a recent research note. Modi faces mounting domestic pressure to strike a trade deal with the US, India’s biggest trading partner. In September, the first full month under Washington’s 50% tariffs, India’s exports to the US fell to $5.5 billion, down nearly 40% from May, according to Ajay Srivastava, founder of the New Delhi consultancy Global Trade Research Initiative. Pant, the think-tank analyst, said Modi could use the new Russia sanctions as a “face-saving device” to convince local interests that Trump’s demands on oil should be heeded. This can speed up negotiations on the tariffs. Indian state refiners mostly buy Russian oil from middlemen instead of directly from Rosneft and Lukoil, which analysts say offers a possible solution to US sanctions. However, Reliance Industries, an Indian conglomerate with a major refining business, has a long-term deal to buy crude directly from Rosneft, analysts said. Reliance did not respond to requests for comment. Get all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. more topics #India US trade Read next story
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