India to keep buying Russian crude oil: S Jaishankar

The Biden administration has been nudging India to lessen reliance on Moscow, but has been getting the short shrift

India will continue to buy crude oil from Russia because it works to its advantage, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in Moscow on Tuesday, even as he reiterated the “this-is-not-an-era-of-war” message, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had conveyed to President Vladimir Putin at Samarkand in Uzbekistan on September 16 last.

New Delhi vowed to continue its energy partnership with Moscow even as the United States of late stated that India could take advantage of the price cap the G7 nations would impose on crude oil exported by Russia from December 5.

Jaishankar and his counterpart Sergey Lavrov also explored the scope for India’s participation in hydrocarbon exploration and cooperation in the Far East and the Arctic Shelf of Russia.

“It is our fundamental obligation to ensure that the Indian consumer has the best possible access on most advantageous terms to international (oil and gas) markets,” Jaishankar said during a joint news conference with Lavrov in Moscow. “In that respect, we have seen that the India-Russia relationship has worked to our advantage. So if it works to my advantage, I would keep that going.”

He was replying to a question from a journalist who asked him if India would continue to buy crude oil from Russia despite the sanctions imposed by the US and the other western countries on the former Soviet Union nation in the wake of the special military operations it launched in Ukraine on February 24.

Jaishankar’s visit to Moscow was his first after the Russia-Ukraine military conflict started. Lavrov had visited New Delhi on March 31. Modi’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had visited Moscow on August 18.

India over the past few months substantially raised its oil import from Russia, which offered it discounted prices in the wake of the sanctions imposed by the western nations. Crude oil from Russia accounted for only 0.2 per cent of India’s total imports in the 2021-2022 financial year, but it now makes up for 22 per cent. Russia was India's top crude oil supplier last month, as it supplied 9,35,556 barrels per day (bpd), thus surpassing traditional sellers Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

President Joe Biden’s administration has been nudging New Delhi to lessen its reliance on Moscow for both military hardware and energy. New Delhi, however, has been giving it the short shrift.

Read | India's oil imports from Russia, a Western pariah, are fully justified

“For us (India), Russia has been a steady and time-tested partner, and, as I said, any objective evaluation of our relationship over many decades would confirm that it has actually served both our countries very, very well,” Jaishankar said in Moscow.

He, however, conveyed to Lavrov that the global economy is simply too interdependent for a significant conflict anywhere, not to have major consequences elsewhere. “We are seeing e conflict (Russia-Ukraine conflict) that are coming on top of severe stresses created by two years of the Covid-19 (pandemic),” he said. “The Global South, especially, is feeling this pain very acutely. India, therefore, strongly advocates a return to dialogue and diplomacy. We are clearly on the side of peace, respect for international law and support for the UN Charter.”

India on Saturday conveyed its keenness to continue to import oil from Russia even as it was preparing to host the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

The US of late indicated that it would no longer prod India to join the price cap that the G7 nations would impose on oil imported from Russia early next month. It, however, added that India could take advantage of the price cap while continuing to import oil from Russia.

Lavrov noted that India-Russia bilateral trade had seen 133 per cent growth this year compared to the same period last year – almost reaching the $17 billion mark. “We are sure that the goal set by the leaders of Russia and India to increase the annual trade turnover to $30 billion will be achieved soon,” he said, addressing the joint news conference with Jaishankar.