Janet Yellen Says Price Cap On Putin's Oil To 'Benefit' India: 'Will Give Them Leverage To Negotiate Good Discount'

The U.S. treasury secretary, who will be visiting India this week, said the country would "benefit" from the proposed price cap on oil.

What Happened: Arguing that the U.S. does not want Russian President Vladimir Putin to "profit unduly" from the war in Ukraine, Janet Yellen, in an interview with newswire Press Trust of India, said Washington wants to hold down the price that Russia receives for its oil and keep that oil trading. 

"The gainers from this will be particularly those countries that do buy cheap Russian oil, and our hope would be that India would take advantage of this price cap, though its firms are bargaining with Russia," Yellen said.

"​​We believe the price cap will give them leverage to negotiate good discounts from world markets. We would hope to see India benefiting from this program," added Yellen.

Recent data by the energy cargo tracker Vortexa showed Russia became the top oil supplier to India in October, edging past the traditionally dominant suppliers, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. As low prices spurred demand from one of the world’s largest oil consumers and importers, Moscow supplied over 946,000 barrels per day of crude to India.

Yellen will be in India later this week to primarily co-chair the US-India Economic and Financial Partnership (EFP) dialogue with India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.