Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Indian counterpart Jaishankar
Russia on Jaishankar: Russia and India are traditional friends. Russia has praised India on many occasions. During the war between Russia and Ukraine, Putin had described India as his traditional friend and praised PM Modi. Once again Russia has praised Bharti in the World Youth Forum. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised Jaishankar and said how his friend Jaishankar had silenced the Western countries with his arguments.
While addressing the World Youth Forum held in Sochi city of Russia, Sergei Lavrov praised S Jaishankar and remembered his previous statement. During this, he told how S. Jaishankar had stopped speaking about western countries. According to media reports, during the Russia-Ukraine war, India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has promoted bilateral relations between Delhi and Moscow.
Know what the Russian Foreign Minister said?
Recalling an incident, the Russian Foreign Minister said that ‘during the Russia-Ukraine war, some experts from western countries in the UN had asked Jaishankar why India was buying more oil from Russia? To this, Jaishankar replied, ‘You mind your own business, Delhi has always been a friend of Moscow.’
Sanctions imposed on Russia, India bought crude oil at cheap prices
At the same time, media reports say that after the war between Russia and Ukraine, when western countries imposed sanctions on Russia, countries like India and China bought oil from Russia in large quantities. India bought Russian oil at cheap prices. This benefited Russia as well as India, because the economic sanctions also included a ban on taking crude oil. Despite this, India had purchased oil from Russia at cheap prices citing its needs. This was the reason why imports increased from zero in January 2022 to 12.7 lakh barrels per day by January 2023.
Oil imports from Russia to double in 2023
India’s oil imports from Russia more than doubled to 17.9 lakh barrels per day by 2023. In this way, Russia became the major supplier of crude oil to India. Earlier, Iraq was India’s largest oil supplier.
Jaishankar had called Russia a ‘firm friend’
During an interview in Germany last month, Jaishankar had said that India has expanded its economic ties with Russia despite Moscow’s military aggression in Ukraine. He also said that Russia never violated India’s interests and bilateral relations remain ‘stable and friendly’. Even before this, when protest resolutions came against Russia in the UN, India did not vote against Russia, but maintained distance from voting and expressed its friendship with Russia.
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