India's oil purchase from Russia much less than Europe's: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 12

India has parried American insinuations that it is giving a long rope to Moscow and not doing enough to cut down its purchases of Russian crude.

• Editorial: India-US dialogue

“If you are looking at energy purchases from Russia, I would suggest that your attention should be focused on Europe. We do buy some energy which is necessary for our energy security. But I suspect, looking at the figures, probably our total purchases for the month would be less than what Europe does in an afternoon. So you might want to think about that,” said Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar.

Some plain-speaking

Our (oil) purchase for the month would be less than what Europe does in an afternoon. S Jaishankar, EAM

Monitoring rights abuses in India

We are monitoring some recent developments in India, including a rise in human rights abuses. Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State

He was replying to questions at a press conference in Washington late Monday night after the conclusion of the fourth US-India two-plus-two ministerial dialogue. The dialogue was preceded by a virtual meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joseph Biden.

“We are for dialogue and diplomacy; we are for an urgent cessation of violence; and we are prepared to contribute in multiple ways to these objectives,” said Jaishankar.

In response to another hostile question on Ukraine, Jaishankar noted that “this seems to be my day to get a lot of advice and suggestions from the Press” and added that “believe me, we have a decent sense of what is in our interest and know how to protect it and advance it”.

The tenor of the Indian stand at the Biden-Modi summit and the “2+2”’ compelled the US to drop the tough talk by its Deputy NSA Daleep Singh who had visited New Delhi on April 5.

“India has to make its own decisions about how it approaches this challenge,” noted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who pointed out that India had made very strong statements on Ukraine, condemned the killing of civilians and sought an independent investigation. “And I would also note that India is providing significant humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine,” he added.

The 2+2 joint statement made no mention of sanctions on Russia but wanted an immediate cessation of hostilities, condemned civilian deaths and reiterated adherence to the UN Charter.

Despite the difference of views on Ukraine, Jaishankar as well as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh drew attention to the progress being made in bilateral ties on all fronts – defence and security, economic and people-to-people ties.

The meeting helped both sides to strategise on mitigating the current volatility and unpredictability, encouraged India and the US to think together on long-term challenges, especially in the Indo-Pacific and it energised efforts to further upgrade bilateral ties, summed up Jaishankar.

The two sides also carried forward discussions on close collaboration in frontier areas – an area of vital importance to India — and decided on a framework to advance cooperation in critical and emerging technologies (CET) such as artificial intelligence, quantum science, semi-conductors and biotechnology.

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