Spike In Oil Prices After Ukraine-Russia War Is 'Breaking Our Back', Says Jaishankar After Meeting With Blinken

Whilst addressing a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken after holding bilateral talks at the Department of State, the Indian EAM said that, "India is deeply concerned over the spike in the price of oil due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and it is 'breaking our back."

He said that there is a deep concern amongst developing nations.

On the topic of the war in Ukraine, he said that, "We have taken the position privately, publicly, confidentially and consistently that this conflict is not in anybody's interest."

'Look, we have concerns about the price of oil but we are a USD 2,000 per capita economy. When the price of oil is breaking our back and it's our big concern,' he said.

'On the price cap, we had a brief discussion on it this morning. More technical people are engaged between the two systems on this particular subject,' he added.

Jaishankar flagged that in the last few months, the energy markets have come under a lot of stress.

Countries in the Global South have found it difficult to compete for limited energy. He spoke about the issue of availability and claimed that countries despite having tenders are not getting any reply from suppliers.

India’s crude oil imports from Russia has witnessed a rise of over 50 times since April and now it makes up for 10 per cent of all crude imports.

Before the war in Europe, Russian oil made up for just 0.2 per cent of all oil imported by India.

The Western countries are gradually bringing down their energy purchases from Russia following its attack on Ukraine.

Blinken claimed that the US was working hard to address the short-term and long-term energy security concerns of the world.

'We’re working to continue to surge Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) supplies to Europe in cooperation with global partners, including in the Indo-Pacific,' he said.

'We are working on implementing the oil price cap to keep Russian oil flowing, but at a steep discount. That of course will deny Russia excess revenues that it would use to prosecute its aggression against Ukraine and, at the same time, as I said, keep oil flowing on world markets,' he added.

On another question about India buying military equipment from Russia, Jaishankar said that it was India's sovereign decision.

'Where we get our military equipment and platforms from, that is not an issue.'

'We look at possibility across the world. We look at the quality of technology, the quality of capabilities and the terms at which particular equipment is offered. We exercise a choice which we believe in our national interest,' he added, suggesting that India buys arms from nations after considering its national interests.