HomeOthers'Russia has never hurt our interests': Jaishankar to German daily

‘Russia has never hurt our interests’: Jaishankar to German daily

New Delhi, Feb 20 (IANS) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar continued to defend India’s decision to buy Russian oil, saying Moscow has never hurt New Delhi’s interests and both nations have always had a stable and friendly relationship.

Ever since the start of the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, India has been procuring crude oil from Russia and is now Moscow’s leading source of crude, accounting for nearly 36 per cent of its oil imports.

Attending the 60th Munich Security Conference from February 16-18, Jaishankar said in an interview with German Daily Handelsblatt that India has always had a stable and friendly relationship with Russia.

“Everyone conducts a relationship based on their past experiences. If I look at the history of India post-independence, Russia has never hurt our interests,” he said in response to a question on the Indo-Russian relationship being a burden on the India-Europe ties.

“I do not expect Europe to have a view of China that is identical to mine, Europe should understand that I cannot have a view of Russia that is identical to the European one. Let us accept that there are natural differences in relationships,” the minister said in the interview, which was published by the Ministry of External Affairs today.

When the fighting started in Ukraine, Europe shifted a large part of its energy procurement to the Middle East, which was, until then, the main supplier for India and other countries.

“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 said.

The minister reiterated that with its policies “stabilised the energy market and prevented a surge in global oil prices that would have been a huge political issue in lower-income countries.

“If no one had bought the crude oil from Russia and everyone had bought the crude oil from the other countries, prices on the energy market would have shot up even further. Global inflation would have been much higher – and that would have been a huge political issue in lower-income countries,” he told the daily.

On being mentioned by Handelsblatt that Russia continues to be the most important arms supplier for India, Jaishankar pointed out that “many Western countries have long preferred to supply Pakistan”.

He, however, added that things have changed in the past ten or 15 years with India’s new purchases that have diversified with the USA, Russia, France, and Israel as the main suppliers.

Much of Jaishankar’s views corresponded with what he had already said at the panel discussion in Munich, ‘Growing the Pie: Seizing Shared Opportunities’, which he attended on Saturday along with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock.

On being asked whether India could be a mediator in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the minister said: “We have already helped with very specific issues”.

“Wherever we can help, we are happy to do so. We are open when we are approached. However, we do not believe that we should initiate anything in this direction on our own,” the minister told the daily.

He added that India is deeply convinced and committed to bringing the conflict to an end.

“Everyone is suffering from this conflict. I don’t know exactly how it will end, we’re not deep enough into the process to know,” he said.

The minister mentioned that the global order is under duress due to shocks like Covid, wars in Ukraine and Gaza, NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan, and disruptive climate events, and to address these challenges, the international order must evolve further.

–IANS

mi/svn

Disclaimer

The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by TodayIndia.news and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.

In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.

Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of TodayIndia.news We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.

Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, TodayIndia.news takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.

For any legal details or query please visit original source link given with news or click on Go to Source.

Our translation service aims to offer the most accurate translation possible and we rarely experience any issues with news post. However, as the translation is carried out by third part tool there is a possibility for error to cause the occasional inaccuracy. We therefore require you to accept this disclaimer before confirming any translation news with us.

If you are not willing to accept this disclaimer then we recommend reading news post in its original language.

RELATED ARTICLES
- Advertisment -

Most Popular