India rejects NATO chief’s claim of Modi-Putin call, terms it ‘baseless’

New Delhi has strongly rejected NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s statement suggesting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin following U.S. tariffs on India.

“We have seen the statement by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte regarding a purported phone conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin. The statement is factually incorrect and entirely baseless. At no point has Prime Minister Modi spoken with President Putin in the manner suggested. No such conversation has taken place,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

He added that NATO, as an important institution, must exercise “greater responsibility and accuracy” in its public remarks. “Speculative or careless statements that misrepresent the Prime Minister’s engagements or suggest conversations that never occurred are unacceptable,” Jaiswal stressed.

The MEA reiterated that India’s energy imports are guided by national interests, aimed at ensuring affordable and predictable energy supplies for Indian consumers.

Rutte, in an interview with CNN, had claimed that the recent 50% US tariff on India had “immediately affected Russia” and prompted New Delhi to call Moscow. He suggested Modi would have asked Putin to explain Russia’s strategy given the economic impact. The NATO chief also commented on Russia’s battlefield setbacks and internal strains, saying Ukraine’s strikes on oil refineries had created fuel shortages, while Trump’s description of Russia as a “paper tiger” had unsettled the Kremlin.

Meanwhile, Russia dismissed such assessments, asserting on Wednesday that its economy remained stable and its military was advancing in Ukraine. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov attributed Trump’s sudden optimism about Ukraine retaking all seized territory to his recent meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in New York.