'India-Russia ties factor of stability in international relations:' EAM S Jaishankar sends subtle message to US

New Delhi: The ties between New Delhi and Moscow have long been a factor of stability in international relations, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday, even as President Donald Trump recently stated that the United States might lower tariffs on India as the South Asian nation had slashed its oil imports from Russia.

The “growth and evolution” of Russia-India ties is in the interests of not only the two nations, but also the entire world, the external affairs minister said as he met his counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow for the preparation of the summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin, scheduled to be held in New Delhi early next month.

Jaishankar apparently sent a subtle message to Washington, DC, where Trump and his aides had, over the past few months, repeatedly hit out at India, not only for its traditional dependence on Russia for military hardware, but also for continuing to buy oil from the former Soviet Union nation, which had come under sanctions imposed by the US and the European Union for launching the “special military operations” in Ukraine in February 2022.

Putin is likely to visit New Delhi early next month for a meeting with Modi. The two sides are working on several deliverables of the summit, including a number of “bilateral agreements, initiatives and projects” in various fields.

“We look forward to their finalisation in the coming days. These will certainly add more substance and texture to our Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership (between India and Russia),” Jaishankar said at the beginning of his meeting with Lavrov.

Apart from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Jaishankar and Lavrov discussed the situation in the Middle East and the Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict.

“India supports recent efforts towards establishing peace. We hope that all parties approach that goal constructively. An early cessation of the conflict and the ensuring of an enduring peace is in the interest of the entire international community,” Jaishankar told the foreign minister of Russia.

Trump had announced on August 6 an additional 25 per cent tariff – on top of the 25 per cent levied earlier – on India’s exports to the US, in a move to dissuade the South Asian nation from buying oil from Russia.

Russia’s share in India’s total crude oil imports rose from less than 2 per cent before the launch of its war in Ukraine in 2022 to around 40 per cent by 2023–24. But imports from Russia came down from over 2 million barrels per day in June to 1.6 million barrels per day in September, as the refiners slashed purchases of crude from the former Soviet Union nation. India’s crude oil purchase from Russia, however, rebounded in the first half of last month to 1.8 million barrels per day.

Trump has, over the past few weeks, repeatedly claimed to have received an assurance from Prime Minister Narendra Modi about India slashing oil imports from Russia. This began on October 15, when he had said that the prime minister had assured him that India would cut down its oil imports from Russia. New Delhi stated that Modi and Trump had not spoken over the phone that day.

New Delhi, in response to the claim from Washington, DC, had avoided an overtly confrontational approach and stated that India’s import policies had been entirely guided by the objective of safeguarding the interests of consumers in the country. Without directly clarifying if it would lower the import of oil from Russia, New Delhi has been maintaining that its energy policies included broad-basing and diversifying sources in accordance with market conditions.