India is expected to gradually diversify its oil imports away from Russia, but a complete halt remains unlikely, as uncertainty continues over the country’s trade negotiations with the United States.

Experts told CNBC-TV18 that market pressures and US sanctions will influence India’s energy strategy in the short to medium term. Richard Rossow, Senior Adviser at CSIS, said the 25% tariffs announced by the US last summer were primarily aimed at pressuring India to conclude a trade deal. “India was really quite unfairly singled out at that point, but it was because of confluence of factors,” he said, adding that the US approach to Russia has since become more aggressive, with sanctions now broadly applied. “Certainly, seeing broad sanctions against Russian oil is not in India's favour, but a

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