Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Chinese language President Xi Jinping days after U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned India, the biggest purchaser of Russia’s seaborne oil, would cease importing Russian crude.
Talking by video hyperlink on Wednesday, Putin described Russia’s power partnership with China as “strategic” and underscored Beijing’s position as Moscow’s high purchaser of oil and gasoline for the reason that begin of the struggle in Ukraine.
China has bought greater than $230 billion price of Russian power for the reason that invasion, in accordance with estimates.
Putin mentioned bilateral commerce had seen a “slight decline” final yr, together with a “correction in indicators,” however burdened that Russia remained “among the many leaders in power provides to China.”
He added that Moscow was prepared to keep up “the closest coordination on international and regional points.”
The talks got here two days after Trump introduced he would decrease tariffs on Indian items in trade for New Delhi halting purchases of Russian oil.
Trump additionally mentioned Washington may elevate further 25% penalty tariffs imposed over India’s power cooperation with Moscow.
Indian refiners haven’t but obtained directions to totally cease shopping for Russian crude and are awaiting a authorities choice, Reuters reported.
Any halt would seemingly require a transition interval as cargos for February and March have already been contracted, Reuters’ sources mentioned.
The precise quantity of Russian oil at the moment bought by India is unclear.
Bloomberg, citing information from analytics agency Kpler, estimated India’s January imports at about 1.1 million barrels per day — down 700,000 barrels per day from November and 400,000 barrels per day from January 2025.
S&P World estimates a sharper decline, saying Russian oil imports into India fell 3.5 occasions year-on-year and 57% from the earlier month, to about 436,000 barrels per day.
In response to Bloomberg, oil volumes now not taken by India are being absorbed by China, which elevated imports of Russian crude in January to almost a report 1.6 million barrels per day.
The very best stage was recorded in July 2024 at 1.7 million barrels per day.
Russia has elevated reductions to Indian patrons, with some cargoes shipped to Indian ports at costs as little as $25 per barrel, lower than half the value of Brent crude.
Analysts at Kpler mentioned India was unlikely to totally abandon Russian oil within the close to time period, forecasting “steady” imports of 1.1 to 1.3 million barrels per day within the first quarter.
Learn this story in Russian at The Moscow Instances’ Russian service.
