3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Feb 3, 2026 10:50 PM IST
India had taken a strategic decision to buy oil from different countries, reducing dependence on any one region, former foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Tuesday.
Shringla, a retired IFS officer and current Rajya Sabha MP, was speaking in the Upper House during the discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address. His speech comes a day after United States President Donald Trump announced the India-US trade deal and said India had agreed to stop buying Russian oil. He said India had agreed to buy more oil from the US and perhaps, Venezuela.
Speaking about the import of Russian oil, Shringla said: “We have been buying 30-40% of our oil from Russia for the past four years. We have observed that for the past three months, it has been going down.”
He said the amount of Russian oil imports had not reduced because of the government’s intervention, but rather because the difference in price of Russian oil compared to other sources had reduced and the impact of sanctions on Russia increased.
“Our companies and refineries take the decision looking at the price, suitability and quality of oil. We were buying oil worth $6 billion from Venezuela before 2020. Now, if this oil is available in the international market, then it’s good,” he said.
Explaining further, he said 80% of India’s oil was imported. “We should balance this on a strategic level so that we are not largely dependent on one region like the Gulf or Russia or others because if there is any conflict or situations or blockage in one region, the supply chain will stop. The decision was taken at the strategic level that we will balance our buying; so, there will be buying from the US, Brazil, Guyana and other nations,” he said.
Referring to the reduction of the US tariffs on India from 50% to 18%, he said exporters, small-scale industries, workers and farmers would get access to a high-value market. He said the 18% tariff was lower than the rate for competitors like South Africa, China, Brazil, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia.
“Right now, our bilateral trade with the US is $212 billion. By the end of this year, I believe it will reach $300 billion…We took our time to negotiate this deal, despite the pressure on the government from the side of Opposition parties, domestic industry and from abroad. But, the government did not budge because our priority and Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi’s policy is India first. We needed time to keep the agriculture and dairy sector secure,” he said.