Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has recalled how External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar gave a strong response to European leaders “to mind their own business”.
When they asked why New Delhi continued to align itself with Moscow amid the war in Ukraine. He made the remarks at the World Youth Forum in Russia’s Sochi while responding to a query on why India was continuing to purchase oil from Russia amid the Ukraine war.
Describing Jaishankar as his “friend”, Lavrov said the former had questioned how much oil Europe had begun purchasing and stressed that India buying crude oil from Russia was a “national dignity”.
“My friend, Foreign Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar, was once at the UN, giving a speech. He was asked why they started buying so much oil from Russia. He advised them to mind their own business and reminded them at the same time how much oil the West had started buying and continued to buy oil from the Russian Federation. This is national dignity,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by Sputnik news agency.
Lavrov’s statement came amid criticism in Europe against India that its procurement of Russian crude oil is detrimental to the effectiveness of the Western sanctions imposed on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In a notable shift in its import patterns, India significantly increased its oil purchases from Russia following the geopolitical tensions arising from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite global sanctions, India capitalised on discounted Russian oil prices, with imports growing from zero in January 2022 to 1.27 million barrels a day by January 2023.
Throughout 2023, India’s oil imports from Russia more than doubled to 1.79 million barrels a day, making Russia the dominant supplier, even as imports from traditional suppliers like Iraq saw a contraction.
In an interview with German economic daily Handelsblatt last month, Jaishankar said that India expanded its economic ties with Russia despite Moscow’s military aggression in Ukraine. He also said that Russia never violated India’s interests and the bilateral ties remain “stable and friendly”.
He said India’s energy suppliers in the Middle East gave priority to supply petroleum products to Europe that paid higher prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“When the fighting started in Ukraine, Europe shifted a large part of its energy procurement to the Middle East — until then the main supplier for India and other countries,” Jaishankar said.
“What should we have done? In many cases, our Middle East suppliers gave priority to Europe because Europe paid higher prices. Either we would have had no energy because everything would have gone to them. Or we would have ended up paying a lot more because you were paying more,” he added.
“In a certain way, we stabilised the energy market that way,” he further said.
During a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference, also held last month, Jaishankar doubled down on the continued purchase of oil from Russia and said it shouldn’t be a problem for others if India had “multiple options” and was “smart enough” to go with what works for it.
“Is that a problem? Why should that be a problem? If I am smart enough to have multiple options, you should be admiring me,” he said when asked about India’s balancing act between its growing ties with the US and continuing trade with Russia.
Jaishankar’s retort elicited smiles from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Baerbock, who were also part of the panel.