Russia Has No Problems With India’s Oil Payment
Moscow: According to the state-run news agency TASS, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said that there have been no problems with payments for Russian oil supply to India, which have been consistently high.
“Russian oil supplies to India are maintained at a steadily high level; there are no issues with figuring out how to pay for oil that Russia exports,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said during a briefing on Wednesday (local time).
National Currencies Come First
She noted that “national currencies” are given precedence in payments.
According to TASS, Zakharova said, “This makes it possible to not depend on the so-called ‘rules of the game’ imposed by Westerners when making banking transactions.”
In February of this year, Foreign Affairs Minister S Jaishankar reiterated India’s position on purchasing Russian oil in spite of sanctions imposed on Moscow due to the country’s armed confrontation with Ukraine. He said that Moscow has never harmed New Delhi’s interests and that India and Russia have always had “stable and friendly ties.”
During his travel to Germany for the Munich Security Conference, Jaishankar spoke with the German business newspaper Handelsblatt and said that Europe should realise that India cannot have the same perspective on Russia as Europe has.
Why Is India Buying Oil from Russia?
When questioned about India’s purchase of Russian oil, Jaishankar said, “Everyone builds relationships based on their experiences from the past.” Russia has never harmed our interests, as far as India’s post-independence history is concerned.
He said that when discussing their positions, Europe and India had not underlined their disparities. He said that when the conflict broke out between Russia and Ukraine, Europe moved a significant portion of its energy procurement to the Middle East. Up until that point, India and other countries mostly obtained their energy from this region.
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 doing so, we steadied the energy market in a certain sense,” he said.
