It is very difficult to visualize a scenario where India will benefit from a close relationship with the US on the long run. Giving in to blackmail and short term gain is not a wise strategy and when your supposed partner is America it is a short sighted strategy. A few years down and a few hundred bloody insults later from America, India might try to cry its way back to the Russian, Iranian, Chinese alliance but it will never be really trusted again.
So easy to replace light oil with heavy oil from Venezuela or anywhere else you've got to build all the proper equipment and the refinery to refine it.
Indian refineries can already process Venezuelan crude:
"The Wall Street Journal reported that “It takes longer to ferry oil from the U.S. to India than from Russia to India. Currently, transit time from the U.S. Gulf Coast to India is 54 days. From Russia, it is 36 days, according to Vortexa. Buying from the U.S. is also more expensive. Refineries in India would need to pay an extra $7 a barrel…Refineries in India are more used to refining heavy, sour crudes, which are the type of oil in Russia and in Venezuela, but not the light, sweet type in the U.S.”"
It's possible that the US will let India complete whatever contracts it already agreed to with Russia but then reimpose its punitive 25% tariffs if it signs any more afterwards.
India's not gonna stop dealing with Russia and they refuse to leave the brics alliance, That's Trump found no already and they're not going to they don't give a f*** about what you're saying
In 2024, Indian expatriates sent back a record-breaking $137.7 billion, and recent data for the 2025 fiscal year (FY25) shows this figure has climbed further to approximately $135.5 billion to $137 billion.India consistently holds the title of the world's top recipient of remittances, far outstripping other major recipients like Mexico and China.Key Statistics (2024–2025)
The Wall Street Journal has misleadingly spun a pro-America angle to the seizure of Iranian-linked tankers by India, whereas in actual fact that is a tit for tat response to the arrest of 16 Indian crew members from the Valiant Roar oil tanker by Iran. It is Iran which had first blinked under US pressure and arrested Indians in compliance with High-handed but illicit American demands to seize assets sanctioned by the EU-US economic-imperialist cartel. Iran has played muscleman bouncer in vassalage to the USA in seizing the Valiant Roar oil tanker and arresting it's Indian crew. Iran is secretly seeking rapproachment And reset in its ties with America, with the mediation of Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Some days ago, The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps had seized an Oil Tanker named Valiant Roar in the Persian Gulf waters, and accused it of being part of a "shadow fleet" which had been smuggling around 5000 metric tonnes of "sanctioned" oil. In other words, The incumbent Iranian government embodied by ethnic Azeris Pezeshkian and Ayatollah Ali Khameini had danced to the tunes of the USA and the EU sanctions mafia. Iran had arrested 16 Indian crew members and is still holding 8 of them in detention.
What business does Iran have of apprehending and detaining the crew in deference to high handed diktats of the EU-US sanctions cartel, when it is illegal under international law of the EU and the USA to impose a blockade on third countries? Under international law, the rights of the EU and of the US are confined to implementing a boycott of sanctioned countries, and do not include any previlige of forcibly restraining those countries from trading with third countries. By know towing before European and American diktats, Iran has behaved in a fashion which implies that it considers itself a colony of the USA like Puerto Rico, where domestic American legislation holds in force. The Azeri Iranian leadership just blinked before the USA in contradistinction to its rhetorical stated policy, in the same manner in which it has been lately clandestine aligning itself tacitly with broad Azeri-Turkish-American strategic objectives in Central Asia.
The Indian action against oil tankers affiliated with Iran has ensued several days later against the backdrop of and in direct reciprocal consequence of the Iranian arrest of Indian sailors. It has nothing to do with compliance before American sanctions, because the Indian Constitution forbids the Indian government from condoning illicit extra-territorial hegemonic projection of domestic American laws anywhere on the territory of India. Moreover, since the USA does not recognise India's exclusive maritime zone rights, it would not make sense for India to enact any coercive action of behalf of illicit American demands in the High seas beyond India's 12 nautical mile wide territorial waters, because such a course will not have any legal basis under Indian law. American publications such as the Wall Street Journal have spun a misleading coloured twist to the Indian action by making it look like an effort to appease the US government.
That might well be Modi's thinking, but is it right?
Occam's razor suggests the US is pivoting to the Western Hemisphere (from a decade long, ill-fated pivot to Asia) because they and anybody who has half a brain knows America is no longer great. That also explains why European leaders (no, not the EU boneheads) have found it appropriate to follow Putin's footsteps in a stampede to Beijing. While one would need to have been living under a rock (or only consuming Western media, which amounts to more or less the same thing) not to understand the rationale, Han Feizi's "Skull Chart math" article might partially help.
The crux of the matter of course, is that for sizeable countries with complex challenges, evidence suggests China has the only government and governance model that delivers (but alas nearly impossible to copy / imitate). India is unfortunately blessed with the opposite - hence the constant need to rile up voters with self defeating policies. Not only would rapprochement with China offers India bargaining power in the jungle, their poor people's only salvation is comprehensive industrialisation*, which is only feasible with much help from the world's only industrial superpower next door. But no, they would rather take huge pride in their world beating growth rate instead. Meanwhile, with a GDP circa 1/3rd or 1/4th that of China, they would have to grow 3 or 4 TIMES faster than China just to maintain the deficit gap. Oh well.
Russia has more influence and power in Asia then does the USA. A little shift here & there by India is not important. Russia is in Asia what USA is in the western -hemisphere.
And there was the India–European Union Free Trade Agreement, concluded on 27 January 2026. It says something about where India is going to.
It is very difficult to visualize a scenario where India will benefit from a close relationship with the US on the long run. Giving in to blackmail and short term gain is not a wise strategy and when your supposed partner is America it is a short sighted strategy. A few years down and a few hundred bloody insults later from America, India might try to cry its way back to the Russian, Iranian, Chinese alliance but it will never be really trusted again.
The Indian Prime Minister made it very clear to Donald Trump that they will not believing the BRICS alliance
Very true, India doesnt really believe in BRICS
So easy to replace light oil with heavy oil from Venezuela or anywhere else you've got to build all the proper equipment and the refinery to refine it.
Indian refineries can already process Venezuelan crude:
"The Wall Street Journal reported that “It takes longer to ferry oil from the U.S. to India than from Russia to India. Currently, transit time from the U.S. Gulf Coast to India is 54 days. From Russia, it is 36 days, according to Vortexa. Buying from the U.S. is also more expensive. Refineries in India would need to pay an extra $7 a barrel…Refineries in India are more used to refining heavy, sour crudes, which are the type of oil in Russia and in Venezuela, but not the light, sweet type in the U.S.”"
https://korybko.substack.com/p/india-is-expected-to-only-slowly
And where are they getting it now because the oil they're using now is Russian light oil
I'm unsure, but they already reportedly bought 2 million barrels of Venezuelan oil indirectly and just secured a US license for direct purchases:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/oil-gas/indian-oil-hpcl-buy-2-mln-bbls-venezuelan-oil-from-trafigura-trade-sources/articleshow/128100769.cms?from=mdr
https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/oil-and-gas/reliance-wins-us-licence-for-venezuelan-oil-sources-say/128301066
So quite clearly, they do indeed already have the proper equipment and the refinery to refine it otherwise none of this would be happening.
Well if you have enough light oil you can blend it and get it through your refinery
My money says they got a discount on it and they're blending it with light Russian crude
It's possible that the US will let India complete whatever contracts it already agreed to with Russia but then reimpose its punitive 25% tariffs if it signs any more afterwards.
India's not gonna stop dealing with Russia and they refuse to leave the brics alliance, That's Trump found no already and they're not going to they don't give a f*** about what you're saying
India was always going to fold heres why:
In 2024, Indian expatriates sent back a record-breaking $137.7 billion, and recent data for the 2025 fiscal year (FY25) shows this figure has climbed further to approximately $135.5 billion to $137 billion.India consistently holds the title of the world's top recipient of remittances, far outstripping other major recipients like Mexico and China.Key Statistics (2024–2025)
Well I guess you missed the G7 meeting in Canada.
The Prime Minister of India stopped in on his way to the BRICS nation's meeting.
That's who Donald Trump left early I believe, When it was made clear India would not be leaving the BRICS alliance.
And they are not going to stop buying Russian oil either or anything else from Russia including their air defense systems which they use.
The Wall Street Journal has misleadingly spun a pro-America angle to the seizure of Iranian-linked tankers by India, whereas in actual fact that is a tit for tat response to the arrest of 16 Indian crew members from the Valiant Roar oil tanker by Iran. It is Iran which had first blinked under US pressure and arrested Indians in compliance with High-handed but illicit American demands to seize assets sanctioned by the EU-US economic-imperialist cartel. Iran has played muscleman bouncer in vassalage to the USA in seizing the Valiant Roar oil tanker and arresting it's Indian crew. Iran is secretly seeking rapproachment And reset in its ties with America, with the mediation of Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Some days ago, The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps had seized an Oil Tanker named Valiant Roar in the Persian Gulf waters, and accused it of being part of a "shadow fleet" which had been smuggling around 5000 metric tonnes of "sanctioned" oil. In other words, The incumbent Iranian government embodied by ethnic Azeris Pezeshkian and Ayatollah Ali Khameini had danced to the tunes of the USA and the EU sanctions mafia. Iran had arrested 16 Indian crew members and is still holding 8 of them in detention.
What business does Iran have of apprehending and detaining the crew in deference to high handed diktats of the EU-US sanctions cartel, when it is illegal under international law of the EU and the USA to impose a blockade on third countries? Under international law, the rights of the EU and of the US are confined to implementing a boycott of sanctioned countries, and do not include any previlige of forcibly restraining those countries from trading with third countries. By know towing before European and American diktats, Iran has behaved in a fashion which implies that it considers itself a colony of the USA like Puerto Rico, where domestic American legislation holds in force. The Azeri Iranian leadership just blinked before the USA in contradistinction to its rhetorical stated policy, in the same manner in which it has been lately clandestine aligning itself tacitly with broad Azeri-Turkish-American strategic objectives in Central Asia.
The Indian action against oil tankers affiliated with Iran has ensued several days later against the backdrop of and in direct reciprocal consequence of the Iranian arrest of Indian sailors. It has nothing to do with compliance before American sanctions, because the Indian Constitution forbids the Indian government from condoning illicit extra-territorial hegemonic projection of domestic American laws anywhere on the territory of India. Moreover, since the USA does not recognise India's exclusive maritime zone rights, it would not make sense for India to enact any coercive action of behalf of illicit American demands in the High seas beyond India's 12 nautical mile wide territorial waters, because such a course will not have any legal basis under Indian law. American publications such as the Wall Street Journal have spun a misleading coloured twist to the Indian action by making it look like an effort to appease the US government.
Simple -India craves American carrot and fears American stick.
The same cannot be said about India's relationship with Russia.
Right so that's why they have ordered Russian jets for their military and the largest order ever of Russian anti-aircraft equipment.
They actually ordered a bunch of Frech Rafales.
https://www.newarab.com/news/india-seizes-three-iran-linked-us-sanctioned-tankers
That might well be Modi's thinking, but is it right?
Occam's razor suggests the US is pivoting to the Western Hemisphere (from a decade long, ill-fated pivot to Asia) because they and anybody who has half a brain knows America is no longer great. That also explains why European leaders (no, not the EU boneheads) have found it appropriate to follow Putin's footsteps in a stampede to Beijing. While one would need to have been living under a rock (or only consuming Western media, which amounts to more or less the same thing) not to understand the rationale, Han Feizi's "Skull Chart math" article might partially help.
The crux of the matter of course, is that for sizeable countries with complex challenges, evidence suggests China has the only government and governance model that delivers (but alas nearly impossible to copy / imitate). India is unfortunately blessed with the opposite - hence the constant need to rile up voters with self defeating policies. Not only would rapprochement with China offers India bargaining power in the jungle, their poor people's only salvation is comprehensive industrialisation*, which is only feasible with much help from the world's only industrial superpower next door. But no, they would rather take huge pride in their world beating growth rate instead. Meanwhile, with a GDP circa 1/3rd or 1/4th that of China, they would have to grow 3 or 4 TIMES faster than China just to maintain the deficit gap. Oh well.
* https://frontline.thehindu.com/interviews/india-industrialisation-ha-joon-chang-interview/article70321699.ece
Russia has more influence and power in Asia then does the USA. A little shift here & there by India is not important. Russia is in Asia what USA is in the western -hemisphere.
You're not fed up in saying such bullshit and wishful thinking that even the worst propagandist would not dare to say.