Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, announced that he will not travel to Kuala Lumpur later this week for the ASEAN summit, opting instead to participate virtually.
Modi’s absence means he will miss a potential meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump as trade tensions between both nations continue. In a post on X on Thursday, the prime minister confirmed he would attend the Association of South-East Asian Nations summit remotely.
Relations between India and the United States have cooled in recent months after President Trump increased tariffs on Indian goods to 50 percent and imposed additional penalties over India’s continued importation of Russian oil.
Mr Trump has argued that such purchases are helping to finance Russia’s war in Ukraine.
India, which sources around 85 percent of its crude oil from abroad, has maintained that its energy policies are driven by national interests.
On Tuesday, Trump told reporters that Modi had assured him during a phone conversation that India would scale back its Russian oil imports.
However, India’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying the two leaders had exchanged Diwali greetings and discussed counterterrorism, making no reference to energy matters.
According to Indian media reports, local oil firms are considering adjusting their purchases from Russian suppliers in accordance with new U.S. and European sanctions and under guidance from the Indian government.
The Hindu newspaper quoted an unnamed official from Reliance Industries Ltd, India’s largest oil importer, as confirming the move.
Once celebrated for their close ties, Modi and Trump’s relationship has cooled in recent months following the U.S. president’s repeated claims of mediating an India-Pakistan dispute — a claim New Delhi has firmly denied as baseless.
