Russia oil trade kept global prices stable, says India
Volodymyr Zelenskyy's comments on India's crude oil trade with Russia may not have been in the right spirit, coming hours after his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kyiv during which New Delhi explained the market rationale for oil imports given its substantial requirements.
Emphasising on India's «global influence», Zelenskyy suggested that India can help end Moscow's war in Ukraine by halting the oil trade that significantly funds the Russian military.
«You can stop Vladimir Putin and halt his economy, and put him really in his place,» Zelenskyy told members of the Indian media on Friday night in Kyiv, referring to his meeting with Modi earlier in the day.
«The role of India...if you will stop imports of oil, Putin will have huge challenges...,» he said.
Ahead of Zelenskyy's press meet, addressing the media, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar mentioned that the Indian side had explained the country's oil trade with Russia.
"...what we did was to explain to the Ukrainian side what was the energy market scenario, the fact that today many energy producers are sanctioned, making the market potentially very tight; and why actually today there is a compulsion, in fact not just a compulsion, I mean why it is in the interest of the international economy as a whole, that oil prices remain reasonable and stable," Jaishankar said, adding, "...India is a big oil consumer. It's a big oil importer because we don't have oil. Now, it's not like there's a political strategy to buy oil. There is an oil strategy
