Western media outlets have repeatedly questioned New Delhi over its energy ties with Moscow
New Delhi’s oil purchases from Moscow meet the country’s consumer needs and have helped in maintaining stability in global oil prices, Hardeep Puri, India’s petroleum minister, said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.
India's trade relationship with Russia and increased purchases of crude from the country since 2022 have been constantly scrutinized by the Western press. New Delhi has refused to join Western countries in placing sanctions on Moscow.
“We have navigated the global energy challenges and I am confident that going forward, we will be able to do so again,” Puri told CNBC. When questioned by the channel’s reporter about allegations that India was funding “Putin’s war machine,” the minister, who is a former diplomat, said, “We will buy from wherever we can as our commitment is to the Indian consumer.”
Puri said the US did not object to India buying Russian oil. “If people or countries had stopped buying (Russian crude) at that stage, the price of oil would have gone up to $130 per barrel. That was the situation in which we were advised, including by our friends in the United States, to ‘please buy Russian oil, but within the price cap.’”
The minister added that India, by buying Russian oil, was “helping the global economy” and contributed to “global stability in oil prices.”
Puri said India had to source its growing energy requirements from different parts of the world, adding that New Delhi buys 38% of its oil from Russia, while it bought $15 billion worth of energy from the United States last year. India’s oil purchases from Russia once again came under American scrutiny this month, when Republican Senator Lindsey Graham proposed a bill that calls for a 500% tariff on nations which conduct trade with Moscow.
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New Delhi has expressed its concerns with Washington over the bill.
“Regarding Senator Lindsey Graham’s bill, any development which is happening in the US Congress is of interest to us if it impacts our interest or could impact our interest,” Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said at a press briefing in Washington earlier this month. “I think our concerns and our interests in energy security have been made conversant to him.”
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