- Friday, February 28, 2025
The diplomat said this while speaking with youngsters at the National Institute of Technology in New Delhi, a day ahead of the SCO annual summit which India will virtually host on Tuesday (4).
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Monday (3) said the country’s trade with Russia has seen a boost in the aftermath of the Ukraine conflict, stressing that the interest of the people of India must be prioritised when it comes to the nation’s diplomatic engagements.
He also said that without a good foreign policy, prices of commodities such as petrol, cooking oil and even iPhone would be high.
#WATCH | External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar says, "Russia's main economic partner was the Western countries, after the Ukraine conflict that way was closed. Russia is turning towards Asia…Our trade before the Ukraine conflict was around 12-14 billion dollars, our trade… pic.twitter.com/rFHGR4lDQx
— ANI (@ANI) July 3, 2023
Jaishankar said this while speaking with youngsters at the National Institute of Technology in New Delhi. His words also came a day ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) annual summit which India will virtually host on Tuesday (4). The SCO features, apart from India and Russia, countries such as China and Pakistan, among others.
The event was part of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s outreach programme to mark nine years of the Narendra Modi government.
The diplomat, who is known for his straight takes on foreign policy matters, said the west was Russia’s major economic partner but the situation changed after the Ukraine war started. With the west shutting down doors on Moscow, it is turning more towards Asia.
“Our trade before the Ukraine conflict was about 12-14 billion dollars, our trade last year was 40 billion dollars,” Jaishankar said in a video shared by Asian News International.
“So, you will see the Asian economies become partners. I think we should not worry too much about what they are doing with other countries. We should keep our own relationship with Russia going and see how the interest of the Indian people is best served,” he added.
Explaining how foreign policy decisions impact the daily life, Jaishankar said. “Without a good foreign policy, the petrol price would be much higher, the cooking oil price would be much higher, the (price of) next iPhone you buy would be much higher.”
New Delhi has strongly backed its call to import crude oil from Russia after the west put sanctions over Moscow’s military invasion in Ukraine.
When he was asked why India continued to import oil from Russia, Jaishankar said India has a per capita income of $2,000 and it is the government’s moral duty to ensure that it enables its people to get the best deal.
Jaishankar had in December last year hit out at Europe’s disapproval over New Delhi’s decision to continue buying oil from Russia, saying the European Union had imported more oil and gas as compared to the South Asian country.
In another interaction, a video of which went viral, the Indian diplomat said, “Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe’s problems are the world’s problems, but the world’s problems are not Europe’s problems.”
