India praises ‘strong and steady’ relationship with Russia as foreign ministers meet in Moscow
- Foreign ministers Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Sergey Lavrov discuss continued sales of oil and the possibility of joint arms production
- While remaining neutral on the invasion of Ukraine, New Delhi maintains open communications with both Moscow and Kyiv and can be a mediator, analysts say
India’s foreign minister hailed New Delhi’s “strong and steady” relationship with Moscow on Tuesday, during his first visit there since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar also declared India’s intention to continue to buy Russian oil, again disregarding the US appeal to allies and partners to isolate Russia from the global markets.
“We have seen that India-Russia relationship has worked to our advantage so if it works to my advantage, I would like to keep that going”, he said about Russian oil imports.
India is Russia’s second-largest customer for oil, after China. In October, Russian supplies accounted for 21 per cent of India’s oil imports, compared with roughly 1 per cent before the Ukraine war. After most of the Western world sanctioned its oil, Russia has offered deep discounts.
Jaishankar said that as the world’s third-largest consumer of oil and gas, and as a country where per capita income was not high, India had to look after its own interests.
Jaishankar made the remarks after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. According to Russia’s Tass news agency, Lavrov said they also discussed “in detail the state and prospects of military-technical cooperation, including joint production of modern arms”.
