On December 5, German Foreign Minister Berberk visited India. One of the purposes of this trip was to try to persuade India to join the ranks of limiting oil prices to Russia. Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar Jaishankar said after talks with visiting German Foreign Minister Berberke that India will continue to purchase oil from Russia in the future for its own energy needs. He also said that since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the EU has bought “significantly more” fossil fuels from Russia than India.
Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar: From February 24 to November 17 this year, the EU imported more fossil fuels from Russia than the next 10 countries combined. Compared with India, the EU imports about six times as much Russian oil and more Russian gas. India does not import Russian gas, while the EU already imports Russian gas worth about 50 billion euros.
Indian Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri also said on the same day that the impact of the West’s “oil price limit order” on Russia on India is “zero”, and India will purchase oil from any country that needs to buy.
The United States and other Western countries have tried many times to win over India to join the oil price limit plan against Russia. On the one hand, it has repeatedly “named and criticized” India for importing a large amount of Russian oil, and on the other hand, it has hinted that India will benefit from the oil price cap plan, but none of them have worked. According to previous Indian media reports, as the world’s third largest oil importer, India currently imports about 22% of its imported crude oil from Russia.