US President Donald Trump has once again repeated his claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured him India would stop buying oil from Russia. This marks the third time in five days that Trump has made this assertion — even as India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has strongly denied any such conversation took place.

During an interaction aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters,

“I spoke with Prime Minister Modi of India, and he said he’s not going to be doing the Russian oil thing.”

His remarks came amid ongoing trade negotiations between India and the United States. When asked about India’s denial of his statement, Trump added,

“If they want to say that, then they’ll just continue to pay massive tariffs, and they don’t want to do that.”

According to Reuters, Trump’s comm

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