As the United States of America continues to impose mounting tariffs on Indian goods and products, a statement, purportedly said by Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar, is being widely shared on social media.
The claim: Those sharing the statement claim that he said, "Our economy will not be run from the White House... Russian oil will continue to flow to India."
How do we know?: We looked for reports about carrying this statement about the White House and Russian oil by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) or by EAM S Jaishankar.
We came across a post shared by MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on his official X account, which said that it was "extremely unfortunate" that the US was imposing additional tariffs "for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest."
However, none of the official accounts for the MEA or EAM S Jaishankar carried the statement mentioned in the claim.
Additionally, we could not find any such statement in any of the press briefings on the MEA's website either.
Government clarifies: As the claim went viral, the MEA took to it's fact-check account to categorically state that the statement in the claim was "fake news."
The Press Information Bureau (PIB), too, called it "fake propaganga" in a post dismissing the viral claim.
Conclusion: A fabricated statement is going viral with the false claim that EAM S Jaishankar said India would not stop importing Russian oil amid rising US tariffs.
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