Washington, Oct 23: US President Donald Trump has reiterated his claim that India has agreed to “stop” buying oil from Russia and would bring them down to “almost nothing” by the end of the year.

However, he said, it is a process and will take some time.

Trump also said that he would try to persuade China to do the same. China and India are the two biggest buyers of Russian crude oil.

“India, as you know, has told me they are going to stop (buying Russian oil)… It’s a process. You can’t just stop… By the end of the year, they’ll be down to almost nothing, almost 40 per cent of the oil. India, they’ve been great. Spoke to Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi yesterday. They’ve been absolutely great,” the president told reporters at White House on Wednesday.

Trump has been claiming for the past few days that India has assured him that it will significantly reduce its oil imports from Russia.

According to the US, India is helping Putin to finance the war through its purchase of Russian crude oil.

The relations between New Delhi and Washington have been reeling under severe stress after Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50 per cent, including a 25 per cent additional duty for India’s purchase of Russian crude oil. India described the US action as “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable”.

Trump said during his upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he would discuss with him ways to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

“What I’ll really be talking to him about is how do we end the war with Russia and Ukraine, whether it’s through oil or energy or anything else. I think he’s going to be very receptive,” he said.

The president said that the relationship between China and Russia “is a little bit different”.

Though Beijing’s relationship with Moscow “was never good”, it had changed due to the policies of the previous US administrations.

“China is a little bit different. They have a little bit different relationship with Russia. It was never good, but because of Biden and Obama, they got forced together. They should never have been forced together… by nature, they (China-Russia) can’t be friendly… I hope they are friendly, but they can’t be… Biden and Obama forced them together because of energy and oil. They are closer than they would normally be,” he said.

Trump is set to meet Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea later this month.

Defending his trade policy, Trump credited tariffs for strengthening the US economy.

“We are doing so well as a country right now because of tariffs. Tariffs have been used against us for decades… and that was slowly hurting our country. That’s why we owe USD 37 trillion. Because of tariffs, we’re now a rich country. We’re taking in money like we’ve never done before,” he said.

Asserting that tariffs were vital for America’s prosperity, Trump said, “Without tariffs, the US would become a third-world country. I cannot let that happen. With tariffs, we are a rich, secure country; without them, we would be a laughing stock.”

Trump claimed tariffs have also helped prevent conflicts.

“I solved eight wars. Of the eight, five or six were because of tariffs,” he said.

Repeating his claim that he helped stop the recent military conflict between India and Pakistan, Trump said he told the two countries, “If you want to fight, that’s okay. But you’re going to pay tariffs. Two days later, they called up and said they’re not going to fight anymore. They have peace.”

Trump has been repeating his claim dozens of times that he “helped settle” the recent military conflict between India and Pakistan. India has consistently maintained that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan in May was reached following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two militaries.

Dubai, Oct 23: Saudi Arabia appointed a prominent ultraconservative scholar late Wednesday as the country’s new grand mufti, the kingdom’s top religious scholar.

Sheikh Saleh bin Fawzan al-Fawzan, 90, took over the position, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported. The decision came from King Salman, based on the recommendation of his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the report added.

Sheikh Saleh, reportedly born Sept 28, 1935, in Saudi Arabia’s al-Qassim province, studied the Quran with a local imam after his father’s death.

He became a prominent scholar, speaking to the faithful via the “Noor ala al-Darb,” or “Light the Way,” radio show and via multiple books he’s authored and his television appearances. His fatwas, or religious orders, have been shared via social media as well.

Sheikh Saleh has faced criticism in Western media in the past for some of his pronouncements. Human Rights Watch in 2017 reported Sheikh Saleh, when asked if Sunni Muslims should view Shiite as their “brothers,” responded: “They are brothers of Satan.”

The Shiite “lie about God, his prophet, and the consensus of Muslims… There is no doubt about the unbelief of these” people, Human Rights Watch separately quoted Sheikh Saleh saying at another moment.

Such comments about the Shiite from religious leaders in Saudi Arabia are common, particularly amid political tensions between the kingdom and Iran. Sheikh Saleh also criticised Yemen’s Houthi rebels for firing missiles toward holy sites in the kingdom.

In 2003, Sheikh Saleh was quoted as saying: “Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long as there is Islam.”

The sheikh also had a fatwa attributed to him in 2016 banning the mobile game “Pokemon Go” as a form of gambling. Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Mohammed now owns a sizable stake in Nintendo and the gaming division of Niantic, the maker of “Pokemon Go”.

Sheikh Saleh takes the post after the September death of Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, who held the position of grand mufti for a quarter century.

The al-Sheikh family, descendants of Sheikh Mohammed Ibn Abdul-Wahhab, long had seen its members serve as the grand mufti.

Sheikh Mohammed’s ultraconservative teachings of Islam in the 18th century, widely referred to as “Wahhabism” in his name, had guided the kingdom for decades, particularly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran saw the kingdom grow even more conservative.

The grand mufti is one of the top Islamic clerics in the world of Sunni Muslims. Saudi Arabia, home to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, hosts the annual Hajj pilgrimage required of all able-bodied Muslims once in their lives, making the pronouncements of the grand mufti that much more closely followed.

Saudi Arabia has socially liberalized under King Salman, allowing women to drive and opening movie theatres as the country tries to move its economy away from being dominated by its oil industry.

Washington, Oct 23: Indian American security expert Paul Kapur was officially sworn in as the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, marking a key appointment of the Trump administration for the region.

The State Department Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs posted on Wednesday on X, “Welcome to @State_SCA, Assistant Secretary Paul Kapur! This morning Dr. Kapur was officially sworn in as the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.”

Kapur succeeds Donald Lu, who served as Assistant Secretary from September 2021 through January 2025.

Kapur previously served from 2020 to 2021 on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, where he worked on issues related to South and Central Asia, Indo-Pacific strategy, and India-US relations.

He has also led the India-US Track 1.5 dialogue and other strategic defence engagements between the two countries.

He is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor at the US Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

In early October, Kapur was confirmed by a Senate vote, along with the new US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor.

During his Senate confirmation hearing in June, Kapur said his career “has come full circle”, having studied the region academically and now stepping into a leading diplomatic role.

“I can’t avoid the feeling of having come full circle. I was born in New Delhi, to an Indian father and an American mother. Although I visited India often during my childhood, I grew up in the United States as a thoroughly American kid, never imagining that my career would someday return me to the place where I was born,” he added.

On US ties with India, Kapur asserted that the two countries “share a host of common interests”.

“The United States and India share a host of common interests: ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific region, which is not dominated by China; expanding bilateral trade, building our economic relationship so that it is more symmetrical and profitable; facilitating technology sharing and innovation; and ensuring access to the energy necessary to fuel our economies,” he noted.

On Pakistan, he said that he would “pursue security cooperation where beneficial to US interests”.

The bureau plays a crucial role in shaping US policy on security, economic engagement, counterterrorism, and infrastructure development in the broader South and Central Asia region.