US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that while India had diversified energy imports, it would be hard for New Delhi to “pivot” from Russian imports in a day.
“They include tariffs on a number of countries, India, for example, and others. And so I think the president wants to take the 60-day period of time to sort of analyse what imposing both sanctions and tariffs will mean to the global economy and even to the US economy…
The US Secretary of State said New Delhi was an “important ally” for Washington, but was still importing a significant amount of Russian energy imports. Rubio said the “problem” was that the sanctions did not just target Russia, but also other countries, including India. Rubio said.
Rubio’s remarks come even as US President Donald Trump waived some tariffs that could have targeted India and four nations for purchasing Russian oil and gas in an executive order on Friday.
US President Trump invoked Section 115, which is the waiver clause of the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russian and Iran Act. The Act gave the US President legal authority to increase tariffs on Russian exports to the US by up to 500% and by up to 100% on the top five countries that help Russia evade oil sanctions. So the president, we need that period of time to sort of study all this and figure out what the right combination is.
Rubio said that countries like India had “voluntarily diversified their energy portfolio”. “But it’s still getting a substantial amount of energy from Russia because it’s hard to pivot from one day to the next,” Rubio said. The US Secretary of State further said, “But they’re (India) also an important ally and partner of the United States.
