US says it will have more talks with India on Iran oil import

, May 16: The US has said that it will have more consultations with India on the latter reducing dependence on Iranian crude oil. "There is more progress to be made and that's what Carlos is talking about and we will have more on his consultations after they are complete," US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said on Tuesday.

She replied when asked about the progress in the discussions that US emissary on energy Carlos Pascual had with Indian officials in New Delhi yesterday on the subject. Like the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said while she was in India recently, Nuland said: "We are making progress".|

She was responding to a query on whether the US is impressed with what Indians have done to reduce the import of Iran oil. The remarks comes against the backdrop of Indian government cutting its crude import target from Iran by 11 per cent to 15.5 million tonnes for this financial year, as disclosed by Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas RPN Singh in the Parliament yesterday. India depends on Iran for 12 per cent of its 80 per cent of crude oil import.

The Obama administration has been exerting pressure on different countries, including India, to bring down their Iran oil imports. Clinton, during her India trip, said India needed to further reduce imports from Iran to get a waiver from US sanctions. It has granted waivers to the sanctions for Japan and 10 European countries but has left out China and India, Iran's biggest clients.

PTI