China refines Russian oil, sells it globally, sanctions to have implications, says Rubio

New York, August 18

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there were “implications” of sanctioning countries like China for continuing to buy oil from Russia.

He said the Russian oil that China was buying was being refined by Beijing, and that it was then sold into the global marketplace. “Well, if you look at the oil that’s going to China and being refined, a lot of that is then being sold back into Europe. Europe’s also buying natural gas still. Now, there are countries trying to wean themselves off it, but there’s more Europe can do with regard to their own sanctions,” Rubio said on Sunday.

He was responding to a question on whether Europe was still buying Russian oil. To a follow-up question on whether sanctions are being contemplated against Europe for continuing to buy oil and gas from Russia, Rubio said: “Well, I don’t know about (sanctions) on Europe directly, obviously, but certainly there are implications to secondary sanctions. If you put secondary sanctions on a country — let’s say you were to go after the oil sales of Russian oil to China — well, China just refines that oil. That oil is then sold into the global marketplace, and anyone who’s buying that oil would be paying more for it or, if it doesn’t exist, would have to find an alternative source for it. So, we have heard, when you talk about the Senate Bill that was being proposed — where there was a 100 per cent tariff on China and India — we did hear from a number of European countries; we heard from them,” he said.

He said he did not want to get into a tit-for-tat with the Europeans on the matter.

“I think they can play a very constructive role here in helping us get to that point,” he said. — PTI