MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/. Washington has for years been encouraging New Delhi to buy Russian oil to stabilize global energy markets, so India is a bit taken aback by the US U-turn on the matter recently, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said at a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"We are a country where actually the Americans said for the last few years that we should do everything to stabilize the oil energy market including buying oil from Russia," he said, noting that India is not the largest buyer of Russian oil or LNG, lagging behind China and Europe.
"We also buy oil from America and that amount is increasing," Jaishankar added.
"So, quite honestly, we are very perplexed by the logic of the [US] arguments," the minister concluded. He was answering a question about this week's claim by US Senior Advisor for Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro that India's purchase of Russian oil was fueling the conflict in Ukraine.
On August 6, the US announced it was increasing import duties on India by 25% (to 50%) in connection with its purchase of Russian oil and petroleum products. But after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, US President Donald Trump walked back those claims, saying that Washington might refrain from imposing import duties on Russia's trading partners.
As Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri stated in an interview with TASS, cooperation between Moscow and New Delhi, especially in the energy sector, remains at a high level and is developing even in the context of international instability.
According to First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Russia continues to supply India with oil, coal and oil products, and sees potential in the export of liquefied natural gas, while the share of settlements in national currencies has exceeded 90%.