Tariff double game: Trump courts Russia for energy deals while targeting India for buying oil

Even as US President Donald Trump has slapped 50 per cent tariffs on India over the import of Russian oil, it has now emerged that he has pursued deals for the extraction of Russian oil and gas and facilitating Russian energy exports in the grab of peace talks.

Reuters has reported that the Trump administration has held discussions with Russia about the joint extraction of Russian oil and gas on the sidelines of negotiations publicly aimed at ending the ongoing the war in Ukraine.

Trump has accused India of fuelling the Russian war machine with the purchase of Russian oil. He topped 25 per cent pre-existing tariff with 25 per cent additional tariff as a punishment for the purchase of Russian oil. But it has now emerged that Trump has been planning to do the same.

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The Trump administration has discussed the possibility of Exxon Mobil re-entering Russia’s Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project, Reuters reported sources as saying.

The Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project in Russia’s far east is one of its largest energy extraction sites. It is also one of the largest foreign investments in the country and involved the United States and Japan along with India before sanctions were slapped on the project.

Separately, the Trump administration has also pitched the sale of US equipment for its gas extraction at sites like the Arctic LNG 2, which is currently under sanctions, the news agency said sources as saying.

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Previously, agency had reported that the Trump administration offered to purchase nuclear-powered icebreaker vessels from Russia.

These talks were held during US envoy Steve Witkoff’s visit to Moscow earlier this month when he met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his envoy Kirill Dmitriev, and the details were later discussed at the White House with Trump, the report further said.