Yellen: US talks with India on price cap on Russian oil ‘encouraging’

SEOUL, July 18 (Reuters) – US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen described as “encouraging” talks with India about a proposed price cap on Russian oil that Washington is pushing to drive down oil prices and make it harder for Moscow to fund its war in Ukraine.

Yellen, who arrived in Seoul on Monday evening, told Reuters in an interview en route to the South Korean capital that she was feeling generally positive about the initiative.

“We’ll see where they come out. The conversations I’ve had have generally been encouraging,” Yellen said aboard a military aircraft on her way from Indonesia to South Korea.

A senior Treasury official said India had made no promises on the oil price cap, but was working with the United States and had not “expressed hostility to this idea”.

Yellen told reporters on Saturday that she had held productive bilateral meetings about the proposed price cap with more than six counterparts on the sidelines of a meeting of Group of 20 finance officials on the Indonesian island of Bali.

The Treasury said she met there with officials from Saudi Arabia, Australia, South Africa, Turkey and Singapore.

Yellen spoke with her Indian counterpart before leaving for Asia, but did not meet him in Bali, a senior Treasury official said. Other senior US Treasury officials have been in touch with lower-level Indian officials as well, the official said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Mark Heinrich)