By Kavita Mistry 
If the price of oil drops, Russian President Vladimir Putin will end the war with Ukraine, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday (September 18, 2025), suggesting that European countries, India, and China stopping the purchase of Russian oil was key to this.
Mr. Trump’s comments were made during a joint press conference at Chequers, the official country residence of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, at the end of his two-day state visit to the U.K.
Over the weekend, Mr. Trump had said EU and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military alliance countries should altogether stop oil purchases from Russia. Last week, the U.S. administration was reportedly attempting to persuade European countries to apply secondary tariffs of up to 100% on India and China for their trade with Russia.
“Very simply, if the price of oil comes down Putin will settle. He’s going to have no choice. He’s going to drop out of that war,” Mr. Trump said, and he brought India into the picture as well.
“And when I found out that the European nations were buying oil from Russia… and as you know, I am very close to India, I’m very close to the Prime Minister of India,” Mr. Trump said as he went on to describe his Tuesday (September 16, 2025) phone call with Mr. Modi.
“I spoke to him the other day, wished him a happy birthday. We have a very good relationship. He put out a beautiful statement too… but I said, you know, I sanctioned them,” Mr. Trump said, referring to the additional 25% tariff he has imposed on Indian goods exported to the U.S., a rate imposed on India for its energy and arms trade with Russia. The 25% is on top of a “reciprocal tariff” rate of 25%.
The resulting 50% tariff rate and then, Mr. Modi’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mr. Putin in Tianjin two weeks ago, had resulted in a low in India-U.S. relations not seen in years. In recent days, ties have thawed.
Posting on X on Tuesday (September 16, 2025), responding to the birthday message from Mr. Trump, Mr. Modi had told the U.S. President that he supported his initiatives on resolving the Ukraine conflict.
Mr. Trump said China was paying a high tariff to the U.S. The Trump administration has argued that China is already paying a high tariff (and that it may not be in America’s economic interests to increase it further) when previously quizzed on why New Delhi and not Beijing was being subject to a ‘penalty’ tariff for trade with Russia.
“China is paying a very large tariff right now to the United States, but I’m willing to do other things, but not when the people that I’m fighting for are buying oil from Russia,” he said.
The President said Mr. Putin had “let him down”.
“He has let me down. I mean, he’s killing many people, and he’s losing more people than he’s, you know, then he’s killing,” Mr. Trump said.
“I don’t like to see… it’s death. It doesn’t affect the United States … other than unless you end up in a world war over this thing. You could,” he said, adding that if he were in the White House [in 2022], the war would never have begun. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, sparking the current conflict.
Mr. Trump also claimed to have ended several conflicts. He repeated a claim India has denied — that he was responsible for ending the four-day armed conflict between India and Pakistan that ended on May 10. Mr. Trump emphasised that he used trade as leverage.
“That was purely for trade. You want to trade with us, you’re going to have to get along. And they were going at it hot and heavy,” he said.