Picture : ANI / X
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar reaffirmed India’s stance on buying Russian oil despite sanctions on Moscow amid military conflict with Ukraine. He said that India and Russia have always shared “stable and friendly ties” and Moscow has never hurt the interests of New Delhi.
In an interview with the German economic daily, Handelsblatt during his visit to Germany for the Munich Security Conference, Jaishankar stated that Europe should understand that India cannot have a view of Russia that is identical to the European one.
On being asked about India purchasing Russian oil, Jaishankar said, “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.”
“The relations of powers like Europe, the US, China or Japan with Russia, they have all seen ups and downs. We have had a stable and always very friendly relationship with Russia. And our relationship with Russia today is based on this experience. For others, things were different, and conflicts may have shaped the relationship. We, on the other hand, had a politically and militarily much more difficult relationship with China, for example,” he added.
Asked whether India would have liked support from Europe during border conflict with China in 2020, he said, “Just as 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.”
He said that India and Europe have talked about their stance and have not emphasised their differences. He said that Europe shifted a large part of its energy procurement to Middle East after the war erupted between Russia and Ukraine, which was until then the main supplier of energy for India and other nations.
