Doval, Jaishankar to visit Russia amid US tariff threats
Russia on Tuesday denounced US President Donald Trump’s threats of “substantial” penalties on India for buying its crude oil as “illegal trade pressure” even as National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is scheduled to visit Moscow this week and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar later this month.
Doval’s visit is expected to address how New Delhi plans to manage its crude oil supplies from Russia, particularly in light of potential further price reductions.
The twin visits also come in the backdrop of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to India for the annual leaders’ summit and the SCO leaders’ summit in China, scheduled from August 31 to September, where both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Putin are invited.
The recent decision by the European Union (EU) to lower the price cap on Russian oil, which had been set at $60 a barrel since December 2022, could allow India to acquire crude at even lower rates. India is the second-largest purchaser of Russian oil and the crude from Moscow accounts for nearly 42 per cent of its total oil imports. The EU had also sanctioned Russian-operated Rosneft refinery in India. Rosneft owns a 49.13 per cent stake in Nayara Energy Ltd (formerly Essar Oil Ltd). Nayara owns and operates a 20 million tonne per year oil refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat, as also over 6,750 petrol pumps.
India has so far shown no intention of scaling down crude oil imports from Russia despite Trump’s mounting pressure and threats of additional tariffs and penalties.
The Doval and Jaishankar engagements with Russia also come after Trump, in his sharp criticism last week, labelled India and Russia as “dead economies” and announced a 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods, along with penalties for countries maintaining strategic trade ties with Moscow.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “We hear many statements that are, in fact, threats and attempts to force countries to cut trade relations with Russia. We do not consider such statements to be legal. Sovereign countries must have and do have the right to choose their partners in trade and economic cooperation based on their interests.”
On Monday night, the Ministry of External Affairs retorted sharply to the US threats saying “targeting India was unjustified and unreasonable”. “India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security,” the MEA said.
Flagging the EU and US double-standards on ties with Moscow, the MEA said the Europe-Russia trade included not just energy, but even fertilizers, mining products, chemicals, iron and steel, machinery and transport equipment. It also cited how the US continued to import from Russia uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for its EV industry, besides fertilizers and chemicals.
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