lørdag 9. august 2025

What if India and China stop buying Russian oil?

India and China have pushed back against US President Donald Trump's threats of secondary sanctions — penalties for doing business with a sanctioned country — over their continued purchases of Russia's oil, which is a key revenue stream for Moscow's war in Ukraine. Both nations vowed to protect their energy security and economic sovereignty against what Beijing firmly called "coercion and pressure" from the United States. China became the biggest importer of Russian oil in 2022.

India, meanwhile, accused the West of hypocrisy, pointing out that the European Union continues to import Russian energy, despite having massively reduced its reliance on it since the war began. New Delhi further noted that Washington had actively supported its oil purchases from Russia, which ramped up shortly after the Russian invasion, to help stabilize global oil prices.

India's oil purchases from Russia grew nearly 19-fold from 2021 to 2024, from 0.1 to 1.9 million barrels a day, while China's rose by 50% to 2.4 million barrels a day.