India, Aug. 23 -- External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday strongly defended India's energy choices, asserting that New Delhi would continue to make decisions in line with its national interest and strategic autonomy, despite growing international scrutiny, including Donald Trump's tariff threats, over its Russian crude oil purchase.

Speaking at The Economic Times World Leaders Forum 2025, Jaishankar argued that the US tariff issue was being wrongly presented as an "oil dispute". He noted that the same criticism levelled at India for purchasing Russian energy had not been applied to larger importers, such as China and European nations.

"It is presented as an oil issue but it's still not applied to the largest importer, China. ...