Jaishankar on Russia oil purchases: cost, availability drove shift, slams European arms sales

External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar defended India’s purchases of Russian crude oil on grounds of cost and availability, while turning the conversation toward what he described as a more troubling moral asymmetry: European weapons sold to Pakistan that have been used against India, a circumstance he said has no parallel in the other direction.

Jaishankar said that India buys oil based on cost and availability, explaining that at the point when India’s purchases of Russian crude increased, much of the oil available on the market was Russian because European countries were buying up Middle Eastern oil, which had traditionally been India’s primary supply source. He characterised the shift as one driven by circumstances rather than strategic alignment, stating that the market conditions pushed India in a certain direction.

The moral ambiguity counter

Responding to a question framed around the moral ambiguity of India’s energy relationship with Russia amid the Ukraine war, Jaishankar pivoted to a comparison he described as more relevant. He said no European country has been attacked with Indian weapons, adding that he wished the same could be said for European weapons in relation to India. He stated that Europeans sell weapons which are used to attack India, and that this has been the case not just recently but for many years. He concluded that Indians have never done anything to endanger Europe, framing this as a reasonable point in the broader discussion about the ethics of arms and energy trade.

Context

Jaishankar’s comments come against the backdrop of sustained Western criticism of India’s energy ties with Russia following the 2022 Ukraine invasion, criticism that has intensified periodically as India’s discounted Russian crude purchases have grown into a significant share of its overall import basket. His response follows a pattern India’s foreign policy establishment has used consistently: acknowledging the practical, market-driven logic behind the Russian oil relationship while simultaneously highlighting what New Delhi views as a double standard in how European nations frame India’s choices, given the long history of European-origin weapons systems being used by Pakistan in conflicts and cross-border incidents involving India.

The remarks arrive at a moment when India’s energy security calculus is under renewed pressure, with the ongoing US-Iran conflict and the Strait of Hormuz disruption already complicating India’s traditional Middle Eastern crude supply lines, making the diversification toward Russian oil that Jaishankar described an even more structurally significant feature of India’s import strategy than it was at the outset of the Ukraine war.