Addressing the press briefing on Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the US believes that increasing Russian energy imports is not in India’s interest. This comes after India’s decision to buy discounted crude oil from Russia after the latter’s invasion of Ukraine forced western countries to cut down on energy imports from Russia.
On being asked if the US will mount pressure on India and China to abide by US sanctions, Psaki said that Washington expects every country to abide by the sanctions. She stated, “Well, certainly our expectation and our public and private message is — will continue to be that every country should abide by the sanctions that we have announced and that we are implementing around the world.”
The White House press secretary further said that US Deputy NSA for International Economics Daleep Singh during his Delhi visit discouraged India from importing Russian fuel. “What Daleep did make clear to his counterparts during this visit was that we don’t believe it’s in India’s interest to accelerate or increase imports of Russian energy and other commodities,” said Psaki.
India has stood stern against western pressure to limit energy imports from Russia amid the Russia-Ukraine war. Last week, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tore through Europe’s hypocrisy when he pointed out to his UK counterpart that European countries remain the biggest buyers of oil and gas from Russia.