The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that supplies of Russian oil to India have been steadily high.
Moscow:
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said deliveries of Russian oil to India have been steadily high and no payment problems have been encountered, state news agency TASS reported.
“Russian oil supplies to India are being maintained at a steadily high level; no problems arise in determining the means of payment for oil exported by Russia,” said Maria Zakharova, the official spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Wednesday during a briefing (Local Time). ).
The priority in payments “is given to the national currency,” she emphasized.
“This makes it possible not to be dependent on the so-called ‘rules of the game’ imposed by Westerners when carrying out banking transactions,” TASS quoted Zakharova as saying.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in February this year reaffirmed India’s position on buying Russian oil despite sanctions on Moscow amid a military conflict with Ukraine.
He said India and Russia have always shared “stable and friendly ties” and Moscow has never harmed New Delhi’s interests.
In an interview with German economic daily Handelsblatt, during his visit to Germany for the Munich Security Conference, Mr Jaishankar said Europe must understand that India cannot have a vision of Russia identical to the European one.
When asked whether India would buy Russian oil, Mr Jaishankar said: “Everyone has a relationship based on their past experiences. If I look at India’s post-independence history, Russia has never harmed our interests.”
He said India and Europe discussed their position and did not highlight their differences. He said Europe shifted much of its energy purchasing to the Middle East after war broke out between Russia and Ukraine, which until then had been the main energy supplier to India and other countries.
“What should we have done? In many cases, our Middle Eastern suppliers gave priority to Europe because Europe paid higher prices. Or 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 paid more. And in a way we stabilized the energy market that way,” he added.
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