Insight Bureau: The United States has been going soft on India while trying to woo the Narendra Modi Government on the issue of relations with Russia. India has so far distanced itself from taking any tough stand on Russia on Ukraine crisis while maintaining trade and business relations. Interestingly, Russian Foreign Minister’s latest visit to India, has streamlined the India-Russian relations further even in the troubled times.
The United States which had recently made it clear that it will not set any ‘Red Line’ for India on it’s energy imports from Russia, went a step further today, as the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki issued an important statement.
She said in clear terms that it’s India’s decision whether they would import Russian Oil or not. However, she drew attention to the fact that Russian Oil accounts for only 1-2% of their imports. However, about 10% of the Indian imports are from the USA.
“We’d be here to help India move towards reducing further beyond 1-2% if India is willing,” she tried to woo India.
As per the data compiled by the Reuters, India was lured by the steep discounts following Western sanctions on Russian entities & bought at least 13 million barrels of Russian crude oil since the country invaded Ukraine in the late February & was compared with some 16 million barrels for the whole of last year.