New Delhi is buying oil from Russia for its own development and not to help Moscow, Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov said recently.
Alipov had, on Friday, said Moscow remains committed to fulfilling New Delhi’s energy demands, while slamming Western secondary sanctions. India’s purchase of Russian crude surged after 2022 after G7 and EU price caps on energy from Moscow. The United States has, in the past, imposed tariffs on Indian goods over Russian energy purchases, including a 25 per cent duty last year.
He said that Moscow was ready to supply “as much oil as India needs”, while criticising Western sanctions as “pressure tactics”. “Unfortunately, those who impose sanctions and tariffs have taken the path of pressure tactics instead of honest cooperation, which prevents those countries from offering a better deal to India in oil than us,” Alipov stated, according to ANI.
This was withdrawn earlier this year in February after New Delhi and Washington reached a framework for an interim agreement for a trade deal.
