Russia FM on ‘friend’ Jaishankar: Told the West to shut up

Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised his Indian colleague S Jaishankar, whom he called a “friend,” on Monday, praising his counsel to the West to “mind their own business” on India’s procurement of Russian oil. While speaking at the World Youth Forum in Sochi, Lavrov commended Jaishankar for his defense of India’s importation of Russian energy supplies as “national dignity.”.

The External Affairs Minister said that Russia has never harmed India’s interests and that the two nations have always had stable and cordial ties in an interview with a German publication published last month. Despite international sanctions, India has boosted its oil imports from Russia since the start of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

“I once saw my buddy, Foreign Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar, speaking at the UN. He was questioned about why they began purchasing so much Russian oil. In addition to telling them to mind their own business, he also pointed out how much oil the West had begun and had been purchasing from the Russian Federation. Lavrov said, “This is national dignity,” during the World Youth Forum, according to Sputnik.

“The West will never dominate again, it is necessary to look for new forms of interaction,” Lavrov said in reference to tensions with the West. “But the West is trying in every possible way to hamper the process of multipolarity.” He said that Moscow is always open to communication, particularly when it is made honestly and equally.

How did Jaishankar respond to the importation of Russian oil?
“Just as I do not expect Europe to have a view that is identical to mine about China, Europe should understand that I cannot have a view of Russia that is identical to the European one,” Jaishankar said, going into more detail about India-Russia ties. Let’s acknowledge that partnerships naturally vary from one another. He emphasized that when the crisis in Ukraine erupted, European nations moved their energy buying to the Middle East, which at the time was India’s primary supplier.

How ought we to have responded? Because Europe paid higher rates, our Middle Eastern suppliers often gave preference to that continent. Since everything would have gone to them, we wouldn’t have had any energy. Alternatively, because you were paying more, we would have ultimately had to pay much more. And in a sense, that’s how we stabilized the energy market,” he said, restating his earlier position.

Speaking alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Munich Security Conference, Jaishankar responded sharply to questions about India’s ongoing commerce with Russia, asking, “Is that an issue, why should it be a problem? If I am intelligent enough to have choices, you ought to be impressed with me. The person seated next to him, Blinken, smiled.

Jaishankar said at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi that it was critical for Asian and other nations to communicate with Russia, which has been subject to a number of sanctions from Western nations. It seems logical to provide Russia with a variety of choices. “We are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy if we force Russia into a single option and say, you know, that’s really bad because that’s the outcome,” Jaishankar said.