India mulls over Oil Deal with Russia, US says India not Violating Sanctions
New York – The United States has said that India would not be violating sanctions against Russia by purchasing discounted Russian oil. This comes after Russia offered India to buy crude oil and other commodities at a discounted price. All this a week after the US banned all Russian energy imports.
US minister said:-
“Our message to enter any country continues to be that, obviously abide by the sanctions, but that we have put in place and recommended. I don’t believe this would be violating that.”
The US recognizes that India is heavily dependent on Russia for arms, ammunition missiles, and fighter jets. In recent weeks, US officials have said that they would like India to distance itself from Russia as much as possible.
India’s world’s third-largest oil consumer and importer, it imports 80% of its oil, out of which two to 3% comes from Russia. Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak spoke with India’s petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri last week and Moscow released a statement that said that Russia is keen to increase its oil and petroleum product exports to India.
It also mentioned that Russian oil and petroleum product exports to India have approached $1 billion. When the United Nations held a vote to condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine, India abstained from the vote.
