English
Munich: Minister Of External Affairs Dr S Jaishankar on Sunday clarified India’s position on purchasing Russian oil in spite of sanctions against Moscow and said Moscow has never harmed New Delhi’s interests and that “stable and friendly ties” have always existed between India and Russia. During his visit to Germany for the Munich Security Conference, Jaishankar said in an interview with the German economic daily Handelsblatt that Europe should realize that India cannot have the same perspective on Russia as Europe.
While being questioned about India purchasing Russian Oil, Dr Jaishankar said, “Everyone conducts a relationship based on their past experiences. If I look at the history of India post-independence, Russia has never hurt our interests.”
He further added that the relations of powers like Europe, the US, China or Japan with Russia have all seen ups and downs and India has had a stable and always very friendly relationship with Russia. “And our relationship with Russia today is based on this experience. For others, things were different, and conflicts may have shaped the relationship. We, on the other hand, had a politically and militarily much more difficult relationship with China, for example,” he said.
When questioned whether India would have liked support from Europe during the border conflict with China in 2020, he said, “Just as I do not expect Europe to have a view of China that is identical to mine, Europe should understand that I cannot have a view of Russia that is identical to the European one. Let us accept that there are natural differences in relationships.”
He further said that while discussing their positions, Europe and India had not emphasized their differences. He claimed that when the war broke out between Russia and Ukraine, Europe moved a significant portion of its energy procurement to the Middle East. Up until that point, India and other countries primarily obtained their energy from this region.
“What should we have done? In many cases, our Middle East suppliers gave priority to Europe because Europe paid higher prices. Either we would have had no energy because everything would have gone to them. Or we would have ended up paying a lot more because you were paying more. And in a certain way, we stabilized the energy market that way,” he added.
In an interview with Handelsblatt, Jaishankar restated the demand for UN reforms. According to him, the countries obstructing UN reform are unaware of the changes that have occurred in the last several years. He claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic caused the collapse of international order.
“The countries blocking reform are in denial about the changes that have taken place in recent decades,” he said in response to a question about how the current blockade could be lifted. The true question is: How can the international order and its institutions be modernized and reformed? “Do your job better” if they are not capable of doing so. Look at how the international order simply collapsed during a historically large problem like COVID. Every country acted in its best interest.
Jaishankar pointed out that during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was some international cooperation. But he also said that most countries did not support one another. He emphasized the necessity of altering the global order. He said that we need to give climate protection a lot more serious thought.
“It was good, there was some cooperation, but most nations did not support one another,” he stated. The international order needs to be changed immediately if we are neglecting significant portions of the world. Many, many nations are still upset that their economic development was severely hampered by receiving vaccinations so late that they had to face entry restrictions.”
Jaishankar went to the Munich Security Conference in Germany recently. In a panel discussion with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Jaishankar stated that it was difficult to maintain a one-dimensional relationship in the modern world.
“Is that a problem, why should that be a problem? if I am smart enough to have multiple options, you should be admiring me. Is that a problem for others? I don’t think so, suddenly in this case. We try to explain what are the different pulls and pressures that countries have. it’s very hard to have that unidimensional relationship,” Jaishankar said.
Jaishankar pointed out that different countries have distinct histories and mentioned the US and Germany as examples.
“Different countries and different relationships have different histories,” stated Jaishankar. It is rooted if I choose to look at the US and Germany. It has a natural alliance to it. That relationship is based on a specific historical account. I don’t want you to even unintentionally convey the idea that we are merely transactional and emotionless because things are very different in our situation.”
“We are not, we get along with people, we believe in things, we share things, and we agree on some things but there are time when you are located in different places have different levels of development, and different experiences all of that gets into that,” he further added.
(With inputs from agencies)
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