External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said it was the strategic purchase policies of India that helped stabilise global oil and gas markets, and thereby global inflation, amid the Russian-Ukraine war.
The EAM made the remarks during a conversation hosted by the High Commission of India in London titled ‘How a billion people see the world’. “So we’ve actually softened the oil markets and the gas markets through our purchase policies. We have, as a consequence, actually managed global inflation. I’m waiting for the thank you,” Jaishankar said.
He added that India’s approach to oil purchases prevented a surge in global oil prices, thereby preventing potential competition with Europe in the market. “When it comes to the purchase…I think the global oil prices would have gone higher because we would have gone into the same market to the same suppliers that Europe would have done and as we discovered Europe would have outpriced us,” he said.
He stressed on India’s significance in the global markets, stating that the LNG supplies, which were traditionally coming into Asia, were diverted to Europe. “In fact at least India was a big enough country to command some respect in the markets but there were much smaller countries who didn’t even get responses to their tender in Paris because the LNG suppliers were no longer interested in dealing with them.”
On India’s stance on the Russia-Ukraine war, Jaishankar highlighted the balance between principles and interests. “We have learned the hard way that people speak of principles…But they are tempered by interest. In this particular case, we have a very powerful interest to keep our relationship with Russia.”
The Foreign Minister also touched upon Khalistani separatist Nijjar’s killing and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations that India orchestrated the killings. “India is not ruling out an investigation but asked Canada to provide evidence in support of its allegations about the involvement of agents of the Indian government in the killing of a Khalistani separatist in that country,” Jaishankar said.
“If you have a reason to make such an allegation please share the evidence because we are not ruling out an investigation,” he said, emphasising that Canada has not shared any evidence with India to support its allegation.
