'EU's Oil Imports In 10 Months Six Times More Than India': Jaishankar Defends Deal With Russia

On a day the EU-G7-Australia price cap pact on Russian oil imports kicked in, EAM S Jaishankar defended India's stance, saying the EU imported six times more than India in the last 10 months.

EAM S Jaishankar has defended oil imports from Russia, saying that the EU had imported more than six times the volume of Russian oil that India did in the last 10 months.

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Defending India’s energy imports from Russia, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said that the European Union had imported more fossil fuel from Russia between February and November than the next 10 countries. He said it was six times of what India had imported.

Jaishankar made the comments after hosting a bilateral discussion with his visiting German counterpart Annalena Baerbock on Monday. The wide-ranging talks focused around ramping up bilateral cooperation, especially in areas of energy, trade and climate change.

“The oil import in European Union is six times what India has imported. Gas is infinite times because we don't import it,” EAM S Jaishankar said.

Baerbock arrived in New Delhi on Monday morning for a two-day visit, four days after India took over the presidency of the G-20 grouping. "The Indian government has set itself ambitious goals not only in the G20 but also at home for its own people. When it comes to expanding renewable energies, India wants to push ahead with the energy transition more than before. Germany stands by India's side," she said.

Last month, Secretary of US Treasury Janet Yellen said India can buy as much oil from Russia as it wanted. Indian oil companies may choose to deal with Russia on any pricing they wanted, but they cannot use Western services like insurance, finance, and maritime services, which are bound by the price cap on Russian fuel imports.

The G7 countries -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United – the EU, and Australia earlier agreed to cap the price of oil from Russia at $60 per barrel in an order to cut Moscow’s funds for the war against Ukraine. However, Russia has rejected the price caps. Russian news agency TASS quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying, "We will not accept this cap.”

According to Reuters, Russia has decided to stop supplying oil to countries that enforce the cap.