New Delhi: Against the backdrop of Moscow becoming India’s top oil supplier, Russia said on Monday, November 7, that visiting Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and his host Sergei Lavrov would discuss Ukraine and the use of national currencies for trade settlement.
Jaishankar begins a two-day visit to Russia this evening amid growing global concerns over increasing hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. The two ministers have already met four times after the Ukraine conflict began in February.
In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry said Jaishankar and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, in their talks on Tuesday, will focus on trade and investment, the use of national currencies for trade, energy projects and the formation of a security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region.
Russia became India’s top oil supplier in October, surpassing traditional sellers Saudi Arabia and Iraq, according to data from energy cargo tracker Vortexa.
Russia, which made up for just 0.2% of all oil imported by India in the year until March 31, 2022, supplied 935,556 barrels per day of crude oil to India in October – the highest ever.
India’s appetite for Russian oil swelled ever since it started trading on discount as the West shunned it to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
New Delhi has not publicly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has maintained that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.
“Russia and India stand for the active formation of a more just and equal polycentric world order, and proceed from the inadmissibility of promoting the imperialist diktat on the global arena,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement.
It further added: “Both countries demonstrate the proximity of positions on the most pressing issues and stand for the adherence to the universally recognised norms of international law, enshrined in the UN Charter.”
The ministry said the two ministers would exchange assessments of the current international issues with an emphasis on interaction within the UN, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), G20 and the Russia-India-China trilateral.
“The ministers will also discuss India’s presidency in the SCO, efforts to fight terrorism, as well as a number of the regional issues, including the formation of a security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region, the situation around the Iranian nuclear problem, state of affairs in Afghanistan, Syria, and Ukraine,” it said.
Announcing Jaishankar’s visit to Moscow last week, the ministry of external affairs said issues on bilateral economic cooperation in various domains would be discussed.
Jaishankar will also talk with Russian deputy prime minister and minister of trade and industry Denis Manturov.
Since the Ukraine conflict began, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy several times.
(With PTI inputs)