Washington, 7 February 2026 (dpa/MIA) - US President Donald Trump has scrapped a punitive tariff on India that he had introduced to indirectly weaken Russia's oil trade.

According to an executive order signed by Trump on Friday, a 25% tariff imposed in August on goods imported from India into the United States will no longer be levied from Saturday.

Trump justified the reversal by saying the world's most populous country had taken steps to stop importing Russian oil. He also said India had pledged to purchase energy products from the US.

The Indian government has so far not issued any official confirmation of a halt to oil imports from Russia.

Tariffs aimed at weakening Putin's war economy

Trump introduced the use of punitive tariffs against Russia's trading partners to reduce oil revenues used by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to finance his war against Ukraine.

On Monday, Trump said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to stop buying Russian oil and instead purchase significantly more oil from the US and possibly Venezuela, which had been an important trading partner for Russia until a US military intervention in Caracas.

At the same time, Trump announced a cut in other so-called "reciprocal tariffs" on India, lowering them from 25% to 18%.

Trump sees tariffs as offsetting alleged imbalances and disadvantages for the US in international trade.

Trump had already announced in October that Modi had assured him that his country would no longer buy oil from Russia. At that time, India showed a willingness to increase energy imports from the US but left open whether it would stop its controversial oil imports from Russia.

A few days ago, Modi said he was relieved that tariffs were set to be lowered, but again left open whether India would in fact cease buying Russian oil. The newspaper Hindustan Times reported there were no immediate signs India would cut its energy purchases from Russia to zero.

Trade deal between India and EU

Trump's announcement to reduce the "reciprocal tariff" came a few days after India and the European Union declared that they had concluded their negotiations on a free trade agreement.

This was also considered a geopolitically significant step against the backdrop of Trump's aggressive trade and tariff policies.

MIA file photo