‘India is coming in’: Trump says New Delhi will buy oil from Venezuela, not Iran
President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Oval Office of the White House. (Photo: AP)US President Donald Trump said Saturday that India will now purchase oil from Venezuela instead of Iran.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while flying to Palm Beach in Florida on Saturday, Trump made the remarks while responding to a question on whether China would recover money it had lent to Venezuela in exchange for oil supplies.
“China is welcome to come in and would make a great deal on oil. We welcome China. We’ve already made a deal. India is coming in, and they’re going to be buying Venezuelan oil as opposed to buying it from Iran. So we’ve already made that deal, the concept of the deal,” he said.
India had been a major buyer of Iranian oil until 2019, when imports were significantly reduced following the reimposition of US sanctions on Tehran.
Bilateral trade between India and Venezuela was $6,397 million in 2019-20, of which Indian imports were $6,057 million.
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The sanctions on Venezuela imposed by the US led India to drop the oil imports from Venezuela to a bare minimum — the bilateral trade was $1,271 million in 2020-21 (Indian imports were $714 million), it was $424 million in 2021-2022 (Indian imports were $89 million), and it was $431 million in 2022-2023 (Indian imports were $253 million). This clearly showed a declining trend, under American sanctions on the Venezuelan oil imports to India.
VIDEO | Florida: US President Donald Trump says, “China is welcome to come in and make a great deal on oil. India is coming in and they’re going to be buying Venezuelan oil as opposed to buying it from Iran. So we’ve already made that deal, the concept of the deal. But China is… pic.twitter.com/u0vLLCuBnM
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 1, 2026
On January 30, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez and the two leaders agreed to take the bilateral relations to new heights in the years ahead.
The phone call from Rodriguez to Modi was the first since the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife by the United States in the first week of January.
