"Don't Have Political Strategy To...": India's Jab On Russian Oil Question
NDTV
India - the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer, became the biggest buyer of seaborne Russian crude after the West imposed sanctions against Moscow.
India - one of the world's biggest consumers of crude oil - does not have a "political strategy" that informs its purchases, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said Friday at a press conference in Kyiv, shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky.
Responding to a question about India overtaking China in the import of Russian crude - sale of which had been sanctioned by the West following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 - Mr Jaishankar also pointed to the volatile nature of the global crude oil market.
"India is a big oil consumer... we are a big oil importer because we don't have oil. Now, it is not like there is a political strategy to buy oil... there is an oil strategy to buy oil... there is a market strategy."
