Modi, Putin talk over phone amid western pressure to impose price cap on Russian energy imports

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, even as the United States and other western nations mounted pressure on India to join the G7 move to impose a price cap on energy imports from the former Soviet Union nation.

Modi and Putin discussed global issues, including the state of the international energy and food markets, according to a press-release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi. The prime minister reiterated India’s position on Russia’s military operations in Ukraine, stressing that the conflict should be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy. They exchanged ideas on how bilateral trade in agricultural goods, fertilizers and pharma products could be encouraged further, Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson of the MEA, said.

The phone-call between Modi and Putin took place just days after the prime minister attended the G7 summit at Schloss Elmau in Germany as a special invitee.

The G7 leaders, who attended the summit, had discussions among themselves as well as with the leaders of India, Argentina, Senegal, South Africa and Indonesia to impose a price cap on import of energy from Russia – in addition to the sanctions imposed on the country in response to its military aggression against Ukraine.

The issue was discussed when Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron had a brief chat on the sideline of the G7 summit. The prime minister and the US President Joe Biden did not have a bilateral meeting during the two-day conclave. But External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who accompanied the respective leaders of the two nations to the summit, had a meeting and the US asked for India’s support to the move to impose the price cap on energy imports from Russia.

India over the past few months drew flak from the US and the other western nations, not only for refusing to join them in condemning Russia for its aggression against Ukraine, but also for continuing trade with the former Soviet Union nation, circumventing sanctions imposed on it. India also increased oil and coal imports from Russia.

Modi and Putin on Friday expressed mutual intention for the comprehensive strengthening of the special and privileged strategic partnership between Russia and India, according to a press-release issued from Moscow. They discussed further development of mutually beneficial ties in the economic sphere and took note of a significant increase in the volume of bilateral trade, including mutual deliveries of agricultural products.

Putin told Modi that the systemic mistakes made by a number of nations had led to the disruption of the entire architecture of the free trade of food products and resulted in a significant increase of their cost. He told the prime minister that illegal sanctions imposed by the US and other western nations against Russia had exacerbated an already difficult situation. The same factors had a negative impact on the global energy market, he said, assuring Modi that Russia had been and remains a reliable producer and supplier of grain, fertilizers and energy carriers to India, according to Moscow’s diplomatic mission in New Delhi.