MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar

New Delhi: Days after United States President Donald Trump announced that all American sanctions against Iran will be in full force on November 5, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the US is aware of how oil is critical for sustaining the economic growth of India. He also said that India will continue to engage with US stakeholders to ensure energy security isn’t compromised.

“The US is aware about our expectations of the requirement for oil domestically which is critical for sustaining our economic growth. We’ll continue to engage with the US and other stakeholders to ensure energy security isn’t compromised,” Raveesh Kumar, MEA said.

After signing another legislation imposing hard-hitting sanctions on Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Trump had announced that the sanctions on Iran will come into full force from November 5. “…every sanction that we had on their originally, which would have — if they would have just left it a little bit longer, would have been so much easier than what we’ve been through over the last number of years,” he had said.

The MEA’s statement came in the backdrop of Donald Trump’s rejection of India’s invite to be the chief guest at the Republic Day on January 26 likely over the latter’s S-400 missile defence system deal with Russia and oil imports from Iran despite the United States sanctions. Donald Trump’s decision was conveyed by the US authorities to NSA Ajit Doval, sources said.

India had officially sent an invite to Donald Trump in April this year. While the authorities confirmed receiving the invite, they said that the final decision was taken after 2+2 dialogue which happened in September. It should, however, be noted that the US and India ties have lately been under a lot of strain since the latter signed a defence deal with Russia.

Even though the United States had confirmed that the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act or CAATSA was not aimed at imposing damage to the military capabilities of its ‘allies or partners’, President Donald Trump later said that India will soon “find out if CAATSA sanctions will apply to the country” after its S-400 defence deal with Russia.