S Jaishankar on Thursday said that India was not the biggest importer of Russian oil and expressed that he was “perplexed” as New Delhi’s purchase of oil from the US had in fact increased.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said that India was not the biggest importer of Russian oil and expressed that he was “perplexed” as New Delhi’s purchase of oil from the US had in fact increased. His statement came as Donald Trump has been putting pressure on India to stop buying oil from Moscow, claiming that the move was fueling Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
Speaking at bilateral meet with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, Jaishankar said, “We are not the biggest purchasers of Russian oil, that is China. We are not the biggest purchasers of LNG, that is the European Union. We are not the country which has the biggest trade surge with Russia after 2022; I think there are some countries to the South.”
“We are a country where the Americans have said for the last few years that we should do everything to stabilise the world energy market, including buying oil from Russia. Incidentally, we also buy oil from the US, and that amount has increased. So honestly, we are very perplexed at the logic of the argument that you had referred to,” he added.
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Trump imposed additional 25% tariffs on India over its continued purchase of Russian oil. India has repeatedly defended its move as something driven by “market conditions”.