Russia offers to help India overcome the oil price ceiling imposed by the West

New Delhi:

Russia has offered India help in overcoming oil price caps imposed by Western countries amid the war in Ukraine.

“In order not to depend on the ban on insurance services and chartering tankers in the European Union and Britain, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak offered India cooperation in leasing and building ships of large capacity,” the Russian embassy in New Delhi said. He said.

It added that Alexander Novak held a meeting with the Indian ambassador to Moscow, Pavan Kapoor, on Friday.

“In the first eight months of 2022, Russian oil exports to India grew to 16.35 million tons; in summer Russia ranked second in terms of oil shipments to India,” the statement said.

Western countries have criticized India’s move to continue buying oil from Russia amid the war in Ukraine. While India has many times called for peace negotiations over Ukraine, it has stuck to its position that it will continue to buy oil wherever it gets a good deal.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told Parliament on December 7 that the government is not asking Indian companies to buy oil from Russia, but it is a common sense policy to get the best deal for the benefit of the Indian people.

“We’re not asking our companies to buy Russian oil. We’re asking our companies to buy oil, what’s the best option they can get. Now it depends on what the market is growing… Again, please understand, it’s not just that we’re buying oil from a country One. We buy oil from multiple sources, but it’s a sensible policy to go where we get the best deal for the benefit of the Indian people, and that’s exactly what we’re trying to do.” Jaishankar said.