The Pulse | Diplomacy | South Asia

How Looming US Sanctions Test India

The passage of the Lindsey Graham Act in the House and Senate allows President Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on exports from India to the US.

Reliance Industries Ltd.’s Jamnagar oil refinery in Gujarat, India.

On September 16, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act with a 262 to 159 vote. The U.S. Senate had passed the legislation on August 7 with an overwhelming majority, which means that the bill now awaits only presidential approval.

Named after the late Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch supporter of Ukraine, who spearheaded negotiations on the bill with the White House, the bill effectively allows President Donald Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on exports to the U.S. from the top five purchasers of Russian oil or natural gas, making exceptions for countries that import less than 15 percent of their natural gas from Russia and are taking “significant” steps to reduce the imports. Additionally, the bill provides for a range of sanctions against Russian officials and Moscow’s shadow fleet of vessels.

Following the bill’s passage, Senator Richard Blumenthal publicly remarked that China and India “better clean up” their “act” and buy oil and gas “somewhere else.”

As of August 2026, India was the second largest buyer of Russian oil, behind only China, leaving the two Asian giants most exposed to potential U.S. tariffs. Between December 2022 and August 2026, China accounted for 50 percent of Russia’s total crude exports, while India accounted for 37 percent.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) was quick to issue a statement on the passage of the bill, stating that it had raised the issue with the U.S., highlighting its impact on “not just the bilateral relationship but also the international energy market.” It reiterated that New Delhi remains “committed to ensuring energy security for its 1.4 billion people…..through diversified sourcing and on the basis of evolving market dynamics.” It also reaffirmed India’s determination to take “all necessary measures to protect its trade and economic interests.”

The language and tone of India’s statement are notably different from its response last year, when Trump first announced “punitive” tariffs on Indian goods over Russian oil purchases on August 6, 2025. New Delhi had then explicitly called out Washington’s actions as “unjustified and unreasonable,” highlighting Western hypocrisy by pointing out that both the European Union and the U.S. continued trade with Russia. It also said that India would take all necessary measures to safeguard its “national interests and economic security,” linking the dispute with state sovereignty.

This time, the MEA dropped the word “national interest” entirely, focusing instead on “trade and economic interests.”

Rhetoric aside, the impact of Western scrutiny on New Delhi’s oil purchases is evident from the actions of major Indian refineries. By November 2025, India’s largest conglomerate, Reliance Industries, which owns the world’s largest and most complex oil refining hub in the world, announced that it would stop importing Russian crude oil for its exports. However, this proved to be short-lived as Reliance resumed buying Russian crude from December 2025.

State-controlled refineries such as Mangalore........

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