NEW DELHI: US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, on her visit to India clearly stated that India should reduce its oil imports from India. She further stated that US and India would work together to find alternative energy sources.

She also stated that US would implement a new law next month that would impose sanctions on all nations buying oil from Iran. Under the new law, a sanction would be forced on banks from countries that continue to buy Iranian oil.

Indian Foreign Minister, S.M. Krishna, also signaled an affirmative response by stating that India had considerably reduced its oil import from Iran, although they never planned to join US and Europe’s plan to suffocate Iran’s oil revenues.

The Indian Foreign Minister also acknowledged the fact that Iran remained an important oil source for India; India is hugely dependent on energy imports and remains the largest single buyer of Iranian oil. The previous year figure for Iranian oil import equaled 12 percent of India's total import.

The main objective of the US is to choke Iran’s revenues in order to thwart their nuclear program and India acknowledged that but stating that they shared the same goal alongside the US.

“The United States and India share the same goal: we both want to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,” stated Clinton, acknowledging India as a “strong partner”.

Although India has nodded in an affirmative to reduce its oil imports but it seems dubious whether this would be implemented properly because of India's heavy dependence upon Iranian oil as an energy source. This was clearly reflected in India's Foreign Minister statement when he stated that the reduction in oil import was a decision that refineries would make "based on commercial, financial and technical considerations."