‘India diversified imports, but hard to pivot in one day’: Marco Rubio explains why US waived some Russia energy tariffs

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that while India had diversified energy imports, it would be hard for New Delhi to “pivot” from Russian imports in a day.

Rubio's remarks come even as US President Donald Trump waived some tariffs that could have targeted India and four nations for purchasing Russian oil and gas in an executive order on Friday.

The US Secretary of State said New Delhi was an “important ally” for Washington, but was still importing a significant amount of Russian energy imports.

‘We need time to figure out the right combination’: What Rubio said

Rubio said the “problem” was that the sanctions did not just target Russia, but also other countries, including India. “They include tariffs on a number of countries, India, for example, and others. And so I think the president wants to take the 60-day period of time to sort of analyse what imposing both sanctions and tariffs will mean to the global economy and even to the US economy...” Rubio said.

Rubio said that countries like India had “voluntarily diversified their energy portfolio”. “But it's still getting a substantial amount of energy from Russia because it's hard to pivot from one day to the next,” Rubio said.

Also Read | Deferred 100% US tariffs offer only temporary relief to India as Russian oil imports fall

The US Secretary of State further said, “But they're (India) also an important ally and partner of the United States. So the president, we need that period of time to sort of study all this and figure out what the right combination is.”

Law threatened 100 per cent tariffs on India

US President Trump invoked Section 115, which is the waiver clause of the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russian and Iran Act. The Act gave the US President legal authority to increase tariffs on Russian exports to the US by up to 500% and by up to 100% on the top five countries that help Russia evade oil sanctions.

India, China, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, and Hungary were the five countries identified as the top purchasers of Russian energy, likely to be targeted by the Act’s provisions. To be sure, the secondary sanctions under the Act have just been deferred, leaving Trump free to use the law against these countries whenever he chooses.

The Act had also included new sanctions targeting Russian financial institutions and their international partners in an effort to pressure Russia into ending its war with Ukraine.

US diesel deal with Moscow

Trump's waiver of a number of sanctions targeting Russia and its economic partners on national-interest grounds until further notice followed Washington's diesel supply deal with Moscow announced last week.

Also Read | Trump-Putin deal: How much diesel will Russia supply to the US?

Trump said he had struck a deal to obtain diesel from Russia over a a phone call, and added that Moscow will immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons “immediately thereafter.”

Russia will deliver another 3 million tons “within a short period of time” after that, Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. This was among a series of conciliatory moves toward Russia ahead of the midterm elections on November 3, in which Trump’s Republican Party is widely expected to perform poorly.