New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar stated that India’s decision to buy oil from Russia amid the Russia-Ukraine war helped in stabilising global oil and gas prices and said he was waiting for the “thank you”.
Notably, despite global pressure and sanctions imposed on Russia, India has been buying Russian oil at discounted prices.
“So we’ve actually softened the oil markets and the gas markets through our purchase policies. We have, as a consequence, actually managed global inflation. I am waiting for the thank you,” Jaishankar said during a conversation hosted by the High Commission of India in London.
India’s External Affairs Minister strongly defended India’s decision to purchase oil from Russia and stressed that it inadvertently prevented a potential surge in global oil prices.
‘Global oil prices would have gone higher if…’
“When it comes to the purchase…I think the global oil prices would have gone higher because we would have gone into the same market to the same suppliers that Europe would have done and as we discovered Europe would have outpriced us,” Jaishankar said.
Earlier, S Jaishankar had indirectly criticised the West for pressurising India to minimise/stop its trade relations with Russia in view of its military offensibve in Ukraine.
Giving a witty reply to the criticism of India’s decision to buy oil from Russia, the External Affairs Minister in 2022 stated that New Delhi’s monthly purchase of oil from Moscow is probably less than what Europe buys in an afternoon.
“Our trade with Russia is at a very small level- USD 12-13 billion, in comparison to European countries. I would urge you to look at these figures. There is a website called ‘Russia Fossil Fuel Tracker’ that would give you country-by-country data of who is really importing what and I suspect that might be very very helpful,” Jaishankar said.
