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Jaishankar counters West on Russian oil purchase: 'European trade bigger than India's'
External affairs minister S Jaishankar asserted that India has every right to take decisions in its national interest.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday responded to the US claim that India's Russian oil purchases are funding the war in Ukraine, stating that Europe's trade with Russia far exceeds that of Delhi.
"…When people say we are funding the war and putting the money, Russia-European trade is bigger than India-Russia trade. So, European money is not putting coffers? Jaishankar asked during an interaction at The Economic Times World Leaders Forum 2025, according to ANI.
"The overall Russia-EU trade is bigger than the Russia-India trade. If the argument is energy, they (EU) are bigger buyers. If the argument is who is the bigger trader, they are bigger than us. India's exports to Russia have grown, but not that much," he added.
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The minister further highlighted that India has every right to take decisions in its own national interest.
"The issue of decisions which we make in our national interest is our right. And I would say that's what strategic autonomy is about," the external affairs minister said.
Earlier this week, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro sharply criticised India for purchasing Russian energy and defence equipment.
Navarro said that India pays the money it gets from doing business with the US, to Russia, for buying their oil, "which then is processed by refiners, and they make a bunch of money there, but then the Russians use the money to build more arms and kill Ukrainians."
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Jaishankar, who was visiting Moscow, had lashed out at the tariffs threatened by the US and said that India was "perplexed" at the rationale behind the move.
“We are not the biggest purchasers of Russian oil, that is China. We are not the biggest purchasers of LNG, that is the European Union. We are not the country which has the biggest trade surge with Russia after 2022; I think there are some countries to the south,” he had said.
Trade ties between India and the US have been under strain since Donald Trump's tariff threats last month. While the US has targeted India time and again for its oil trade with Russia, it has not imposed any sanctions on China yet.
