Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov on Thursday made it clear that the trend of crude oil supply to India will continue, and bilateral trade will strike new records. He also appreciated India’s “consistent, independent and well-balanced” response to the Ukraine conflict. Interestingly, the Russian envoy’s comments came ahead of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin are all set to meet each other in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand.
Commenting on the India-Russia oil trade, Alipov said, “India being a consumer, quite naturally is looking for the cheapest offers and Russia being deprived of its traditional markets in Europe is looking for new markets.” The Russian envoy further added, “This meeting between best available options and best available offers is driving the trade and our relationship in the energy sector, it is natural we think this trend will continue in a structured manner.”
“No one knows the situation how energy markets look like by the end of the year, we are looking to further expanding our relationship in this area at promoting the ongoing dialogue and cooperation based on long-term arrangements and agreements,” Russian Ambassador to India Alipov was quoted by news agency ANI.
Speaking on the energy markets, Alipov said, “No one knows the situation how energy markets look like by the end of the year, we are looking to further expand our relationship in this area at promoting the ongoing dialogue and cooperation based on long-term arrangements and agreements.”
Jump in Russian oil export to India
Quoting the estimates, Alipov said that Russian oil exports to India have jumped nearly 10 times this year. He added, “The volumes of trade have reached USD 11.5 billion already in half of the year. We will make and strike possibly a new record in our trade by the year, as we did in the previous one when our trade stood at USD 13.6 billion.” He also stated that Russian crude oil is now fulfilling almost 10 per cent of India’s imported oil consumption.
He further informed that both the countries are looking forward to expanding the relationship in the energy sector as the situation in future is unpredictable.
Russian envoy slams West for ‘double standards’
Slamming the West for their “double standards”, the Russian ambassador praised External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and said, “I believe that these are the same double standards, hypocrisy and geopolitics. Jaishankar was very clear to articulate the imperative to satisfy the needs of the Indian people, essentially we can put it like that West continues to plausibly ignore India’s legitimate national interest.”
He also termed sanctions and restrictions imposed by the West on Russian oil exports as illegitimate and against the practices of international law.