External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday told Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski that the “selective targeting” of India for purchasing Russian oil amid the war in Ukraine was “unfair and unjustified”.
The statement was in line with New Delhi’s response in August to the United States announcing punitive tariffs on India for buying Russian oil. US President Donald Trump had also reportedly urged the European Union to impose tariffs of up to 100% on China and India to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
The external affairs ministry had said at the time that it was unfortunate that the US was imposing additional tariffs on India “for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest”.
Jaishankar on Monday also urged Poland to show “zero tolerance for terrorism” and not help “fuel the terrorist infrastructure in our neighbourhood”. The foreign minister also told Sikorski that he hoped to discuss “some of your recent travels to the region” during their meeting.
He appeared to have been referring to Sikorski’s visit to Pakistan in October, when he had met the country’s top leadership, The Hindu reported.
Speaking to reporters outside the Hyderabad House in New Delhi, Sikorski said that the conversation about Indian and Polish neighbourhoods had been “frank”. He said that while the two countries agreed on concerns about terrorism, Poland saw India’s participation in “Zapad-2025” military exercises in Russia and Belarus as “threatening”, The Hindu reported.
The Polish foreign minister, however, told reporters in Jaipur earlier that he was “pleased” that India had reduced its purchases of oil from Russia.
Sikorski was in India for a three-day visit from January 17 to 19. The meeting with Jaishankar came days before the visit of the president of the European Council, António Luís Santos da Costa, and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to India from January 25 to January 27.
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