Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said on Monday that the European Union (EU) continues to remain the biggest global purchaser of Russian fossil fuels, importing “much more” crude, coal, and natural gas than India.
The remarks by the Indian foreign minister were made during a joint press conference with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock, who is on an official visit to New Delhi.
“Between 24th February and 17th November, the European Union imported more fossil fuels from Russia than the next 10 countries combined,” stated Jaishankar, addressing a question on New Delhi’s decision to scale up imports of Russian crude amid global volatility in energy prices caused by Western countries’ efforts to phase out Russian supplies from the global supply chain in the wake of the special military operation in Ukraine.
Jaishankar stated that the oil “imported by the European Union is six times that imported by India.”
“Gas is infinity times because we don’t import (gas from Russia), whereas the European Union has imported around 50 billion euros' worth of gas. Even the coal imports from Russia for the European Union, I am not singling out any country, is 50 percent more than India has imported,” the Indian foreign minister pointed out.
Jaishankar explained that it was wrong to presume that the European Union was doing something different from what India was doing.
India's foreign minister said there was a “finite amount of energy resources available in the world.”
He further said that the EU’s ongoing efforts to reduce dependence on Russian energy supplies and turn to the Middle East for replacement have created a strain on global energy markets.
Jaishankar underscored that the Gulf countries have traditionally been the chief suppliers to countries like India.
The G7 club of rich nations, the EU, and Australia on Monday introduced a price cap on Russian seaborne oil in a bid to curtail the import of crude from Russia. Western countries also said that they would stop importing Russian crude altogether by February.
Governments in the West have also imposed eight rounds of sanctions against Moscow in a bid to deprive it of trade revenues in various sectors.