India's Decision to Buy Russian Oil: Geopolitics and Energy Security
S Jaishankar talked about India buying Russian oil on Friday. He said it started back in 2022 because prices were lower and supply was available.
He added that this move happened because the United States asked for it. The goal, he claimed, was to keep global oil prices down.
“At that time,” Jaishankar explained while speaking in Finland, “the US specifically asked India to buy Russian oil to stabilise the oil market.”
The situation behind it all is tangled up. After Washington put sanctions on Moscow because of the invasion of Ukraine, Europe started pulling back from Russian energy supplies. They turned toward Middle Eastern oil. That meant competition for those imports got really intense for India, who usually relied on that supply route.
He described how things pushed them in a certain direction. “At that point,” he said, “much of the oil available was from Russia because Europeans were buying up Middle East oil, which is where we normally get our stuff. Circumstances just pushed us.”
This came up when someone was questioning India’s position on the war itself. A journalist there accused India of being too sympathetic to Russia. Too willing to buy Russian oil.
Jaishankar responded by pivoting right back to the mechanics. “I buy oil based on cost and availability,” he insisted. He pointed out the obvious logic: Europeans were essentially shifting away from the Middle East, which was our traditional supplier then. So yeah, circumstances pushed us.”
He got into Europe’s moral side too. There was a comment about hypocrisy floating around. Jaishankar said something about weapons. “No European country has been attacked with Indian weapons. I wish I could say that for Europe weapons vis-à-vis India.”
Then he elaborated on the weapon angle, dragging it out a bit. “Europe sells weapons,” he stated plainly. “Used to attack India. Not just now, but for many years. We Indians have never done anything to endanger Europe. I think that’s a reasonable point.”
The dynamic with Russia and the US is complex. Jaishankar noted that Russia remains India’s biggest energy supplier, and the US is its largest gas provider. He called Russia a steady supplier of energy overall. And he brought up something about the world moving away from the Gulf entirely derisking.
He then dismissed the moralizing around the purchases outright. “Let’s not pretend that this is about some great principles,” he said, pushing back against the hypocrisy charge. He pointed out the sequence: the US asked for energy, then imposed tariffs, and then they revoked them. It wasn't simple morality.
India maintained its stance throughout this whole thing. Energy decisions were guided by national interest, pure energy security. They refused to align with any Western sanctions on Russia. Meanwhile, as other Western nations cut back on Russian crude following the Ukraine conflict, India ramped up those discounted imports significantly. That made India one of the leading sources for crude supplies in the years that followed. It just happened.
Written by Gree News Team — Senior Editorial Board
Gree News Team covers international news and global affairs at Gree News. Our collective of senior editors is dedicated to providing independent, accurate, and responsible journalism for a global audience.
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