The United States does not believe that it is in India’s interests to increase imports of energy or other commodities from Russia, the White House said on Tuesday.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki made the statement while explaining the comments made by US Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics Daleep Singh during his visit to India on March 31.
Singh had said that countries attempting to circumvent the sanctions imposed on Russia will face consequences. He had clarified that India’s current import of Russian energy does not violate any sanctions but warned that any increase was at cross purposes with US’ strategic objectives.
The United States and several other countries have imposed sanctions on Russia in view of the Ukrainian conflict. However, the Indian government had said on March 16 that it was exploring options to buy Russian crude oil as its prices have fallen during the Ukrainian conflict.
India is also reportedly looking into ways to formulate a mechanism for rupee payments for trade with Russia, in order to deal with the effects of sanctions on Moscow. This could mean getting Russian banks and firms to open accounts with Indian state-run banks in order to settle trade transactions, according to a Reuters report that cited a banking official.
The United States, European Union, United Kingdom and Canada, among other major countries, have announced sanctions against Russia. Some of these measures target Russian state-owned banks and restrict the country’s ability to carry out transactions in major currencies.
At a press conference on Monday, Psaki told reporters that Singh had explained the mechanisms of US’ sanctions and reiterated that countries should abide by it.
She said energy payments made by India would not lead to sanctions and that it was a country’s choice to ban or import them.
“Right now, just to give everybody the full scope of it, India’s imports of Russian energy represent only 1% to 2% of their total energy imports,” she said.
Psaki also said that the US was willing to help India with its oil supplies.
“We also made clear that we’d be happy to be a partner in reducing their [India’s] reliance or even their small percentage of – of reliance on that.”
Before Russian began its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, India was buying only 3% of its oil supplies from Moscow. But, unidentified officials told Reuters that that the Indian government could increase the import as Russia was offering oil and other commodities at a heavy discount.
Russia is the world’s largest exporter of crude and fuels and with numerous buyers boycotting the country, it has raised fears of supply disruption.
International oil prices had crossed the $100 per barrel mark for the first time in seven years as Russian invaded Ukraine.
On Tuesday, the price of Brent crude stood at $108.76 (Rs 8,207), according to Bloomberg.
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