By Nandita Bose and Garrett Renshaw

WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pledged to stop buying oil from Russia.

Trump stated that he would then try to push China to take a similar step as Washington intensifies its efforts to cut off Moscow's energy revenues.

India and China are the largest buyers of Russian seaborne oil exports, benefiting from the discounted prices that Russia was forced to accept after European buyers avoided importing from it and the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Trump has recently targeted India over its purchases of Russian oil, imposing tariffs on Indian exports to the United States as part of his efforts to choke off Russia’s oil revenues and pressure Moscow to negotiate a peace agreement in Ukraine.

"I wasn't happy about India buying oil, and today they assured me they won't be buying oil from Russia," Trump told reporters during an event at the White House.

He added, "This is a big step. Now we will make China do the same."

The Indian embassy in Washington has not yet responded to emailed questions about whether Modi made such a commitment to Trump.

Russia is India's largest supplier of oil. Moscow exported 1.62 million barrels per day to India in September, representing nearly a third of the country's oil imports.

For several months, Modi resisted US pressure, and Indian officials defended the purchases as vital to national energy security.

India's move to halt imports would be a major shift from one of Moscow's biggest energy customers, and could prompt other countries that still import Russian crude to reconsider their positions.

Trump wants to leverage bilateral relations to impose economic isolation on Russia, rather than relying solely on sanctions.

Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on India this summer after the two countries failed to reach a preliminary trade agreement. He followed this with an additional 25 percent tariff due to the country's purchases of Russian oil.

This angered India because similar tariffs were not imposed on any of the other major buyers of Russian oil, such as China or Türkiye.

(Prepared by Rehab Alaa for the Arabic Bulletin)