New Delhi: US President Donald Trump has said India will buy oil from Venezuela instead of Iran, just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez on expanding ties.Speaking to reporters on January 31 while travelling from Washington to Florida, Trump said Washington had already reached an understanding with New Delhi on Venezuelan crude. “We have already made that deal, the concept of the deal,” he said, adding that India would purchase oil from Venezuela rather than Iran, according to Reuters. India, however, has not been importing Iranian crude for years because of US sanctions, and Trump was probably referring to India’s purchases of Russian oil.Trump’s comments came a day after Reuters reported that the United States had told India it could soon resume purchases of Venezuelan oil as part of efforts to replace Russian crude, citing three people familiar with the matter.India became a major buyer of discounted Russian oil after the Ukraine war in 2022, a move that has been a persistent source of friction with Washington in Trump’s second term.That friction has played out through tariffs. In August, the Trump administration raised duties on Indian imports to 50%, half of which Washington described as a penalty for India’s continued purchases of Russian oil.The US president’s remarks also prompted a political response in India, with the opposition Congress taking a swipe at the Modi government for what it described as a lack of transparency on major foreign policy and energy decisions.Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said Trump once again appeared to be publicly disclosing information about India’s policy choices before the Indian government itself. “President Trump continues to give us information on what our own government has done or will be doing,” Ramesh said in a post on X, sharing audio of Trump’s remarks.Ramesh also referred to previous instances where Trump had claimed credit for halting India’s purchases of Russian oil and for stopping hostilities between India and Pakistan, saying the latest comments followed the same pattern.Trump, for his part, framed the prospective Venezuelan oil sales as part of a broader realignment in global energy flows driven by US policy. He said China could also strike a deal with Washington to buy Venezuelan crude, telling reporters that Beijing was “welcome to come in” and could “make a great deal on oil”, without offering details.Just days before Trump’s comments, Modi and Rodríguez spoke by phone on January 30 and agreed to expand bilateral ties “in all areas”, including energy, trade and investment, according to a readout from India’s Ministry of External Affairs. Modi posted that the two leaders discussed a shared vision of taking relations to new heights, while Rodríguez described the conversation as cordial and said they explored cooperation in sectors such as mining and automobiles.India had been one of Venezuela’s largest crude buyers before US sanctions imposed in 2019 cut off most purchases. Indian oil firms also hold investments in Venezuelan oilfields, and officials have recently been in talks with Venezuelan and US counterparts over pending dividends owed to ONGC Videsh.Indian refiners have expressed reportedly expressed interest in Venezuelan oil following Maduro’s ouster, although executives have cautioned that concrete offers have yet to materialise as traders prioritise commitments to the US market.Neither India’s oil ministry nor the external affairs ministry has publicly commented on Trump’s latest remarks.