By Krishna N. Das and Aftab Ahmed
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Russia will continue supplying oil to India and the country’s President Vladimir Putin will meet India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi by the end of year, a Russian embassy official in India said on Wednesday.
Russia has a “very, very special mechanism” to continue oil supplies to India, Roman Babushkin, the charge d’affaires at the Russian embassy in India, told reporters at a press briefing, adding that India’s crude oil imports from Russia will remain at the same level.
No dates had been finalised for the Putin-Modi meeting yet, he said.
The U.S. is set to impose an additional 25% tariff on Indian exports on August 28, citing their imports of Russian oil, which expanded after Western nations sanction Russian supply after its invasion of Ukraine.
However, the U.S. has stopped short of imposing similar tariffs on China over its purchases of Russian oil.
Last month, the European Union sanctioned Russian-backed Indian refinery Nayara Energy, leading the refiner to cut back processing and companies to curtail their trading with them.
Trade between Indian and Russia was expected to grow 10% annually, Evgeniy Griva, Deputy Trade Representative of Russia to India said at the briefing.
(Reporting by Krishna Das and Aftab Ahmed, writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Tom Hogue and Christian Schmollinger)
