India will continue buying Russian oil because it benefits the country, Reuters reported India’s foreign minister as saying after meeting his Russian counterpart for the fifth time this year on Tuesday, adding that the two countries were expanding their trade ties.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is visiting Moscow for the first time since the Russia-Ukraine war began in February. His trip comes as US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visits New Delhi this week to hold talks with Indian officials, including possibly on capping Russian oil prices.
“Russia has been a steady and time-tested partner. Any objective evaluation of our relationship over many decades would confirm that it has actually served both our countries very, very well,” Jaishankar said in a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Jaishankar said that as the world’s third-largest consumer of oil and gas where the levels of income were not high, India had to look after its own interests.
“And in that respect, quite honestly, we have seen that the India-Russia relationship has worked to our advantage,” he said. “So, if it works to my advantage, I would like to keep that going.”
