Hardeep Puri clarified all doubts of CNN regarding India buying Russian Oil
Union petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri very bluntly reiterated India’ s position on buying Russian oil. India is under no moral conflict to stop buying oil from Russia. He clarified all lingering doubts of the West raised through CNN.
Why should India have “qualms” over purchasing oil or Arms from Russia ? The minister said: “Absolutely none, there is no moral conflict, if somebody wants to take an ideological position…We don’t buy from X or Y, we buy whatever is available.”
The US and Europe are attempting to force other countries to toe their line in imposing price caps on Russian oil beginning this December. So the CNN wanted to know India’s backup plan if the West decides to tighten the oil ban from Russia. Puri said “We have many backup plans, I don’t look at the way you are looking at it. We have healthy discussions going on with the US and Europe. We don’t feel any pressure, Modi’s government doesn’t feel the pressure.
Well Indians will say that let the West try any funny things with India, they will be taught a lesson this time, enough is enough. India will keep buying from Russia, or Iran or Venezuela from wherever it is available. Can the West physically stop India from doing this, they are just jot in a position to do so.
Puri also pointed out the lie being peddled by the West regarding India’s purchases stating that India only bought 0.2 per cent, not 2 per cent of Russian oil and it buys in a quarter what Europe buys in one afternoon.
India is the fifth largest economy in the world, as a country, it is making the transition. The West wants to derail this rise. So they have an increase in the oil prices, to have consequences – one of it is – there will be inflation and recession, another is we will make the transition in green energy.
So India owes a moral duty towards its people and will thus import from its Russian friends and Iranian friends and Arab friends. It will also import from its American and European friends.
“We owe our moral duty to consumers, we have a 1.3 billion population and we have to ensure that they are supplied with energy, whether petrol or diesel. We were the only country in the world, which at the time when we were feeding 800 million people free meals a day which we are still doing. The Government reduced its revenue in order to make sure that the prices of petrol ban didn’t go up.”
Puri had last month in Washington after his bilateral meeting with US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm stated that the Indian government has a moral duty to provide energy to its citizens and it will continue to buy oil from wherever it has to.
Meanwhile, during the CNN interview aired on October 31, asked about whether India was becoming a backdoor into Europe for Russian oil, which is imported into India where it is refined before being exported to Europe, the union minister said, “That was done by some private sector companies, not by OMC’s. Who buys Russian oil, and where it is refined, we have nothing to do with that. The government doesn’t do the buying. The oil trade is conducted by economic entities.”
“Today, I met a minister from Guyana, they have got a production company, we are buying from Canada. We bought from the US, USD 20 billion worth which is half of what we buy from OPEC. We will buy oil, and gas from wherever we can get it,” Puri said
The union petroleum minister also highlighted the increase in oil prices after the West and US banned purchases of Russian oil.
“First, you should address this question to the EU, and US because if India did not buy or someone else didn’t buy Russian oil and it goes off the market, what would happen to international prices?…prices will go up to USD 200,” said Puri.
Puri emphasized that if the European Union wants to come up with something, they will talk to India.
“If the EU wants to come up with something, they will talk to us, we will examine- what is on offer now. We have a situation where Hungarian oil could come through the pipeline and it’s exempt from the so-called price cap. Russian oil goes to China through the pipeline, it is exempt, and Japan can buy. I want to find to whom the price cap is aimed,” added Puri in an interview to CNN’s Becky Anderson.
On India’s cooperation with the G7 stance, i.e. tapping the price of Russian sea-borne oil exports, Puri said that the proposal is yet to be formalized.
“I am surprised that you are fixated on the proposal, which has not been fully spelt out. India will examine it, and respond according to its national interest. We will take a view and will discuss it with everyone,” said Puri.
