During the conversation, a journalist asked whether China would be able to recover the money it had already paid Venezuela for oil. Trump replied that he was not sure, but said China would be welcome to join the deal. “If China wants to come in, we welcome them,” he said, adding that a ‘very good oil deal’ could be made.

Trump further stated that India would now buy oil from Venezuela instead of Iran. ‘We’ve already made the deal. Now India is coming,’ he said confidently. He also repeated that China is free to purchase Venezuelan oil and that the US would not stand in the way.

However, India has so far not issued any official response to Trump’s claims, leaving the situation unclear. It is worth noting that after the removal of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his subsequent arrest, the US has been actively trying to gain control over Venezuela’s oil industry.

Last year, Trump had imposed an additional 25 percent tariff on India for continuing to buy oil from Russia, a move that had already strained trade relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, India’s opposition party, the Congress, has sharply criticized the Modi government over Trump’s remarks. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote on X that Trump has repeatedly told India what its own government has supposedly done or plans to do.

‘He told us that Operation Sindoor was stopped. He told us that India stopped buying Russian oil. Now he is saying India will buy oil from Venezuela,’ Ramesh wrote. He added that it is troubling that a foreign leader appears to be announcing India’s policies before its own government does.