Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar underlined the double standards of the collective West over the Russian crude issue in his latest swipe at Western countries for their attempts to prevent India from acquiring oil from Moscow.
India's top diplomat pointed out that European sovereign states were lecturing New Delhi over the matter while benefiting from Russian oil for a prolonged period.
India's top diplomat pointed out that European sovereign states were lecturing New Delhi over the matter while benefiting from Russian oil for a prolonged period.
"When every other country looks after the welfare of its people and its economic interests, the same countries in Europe are saying don't buy oil from Russia; they were themselves taking it and they made such a schedule that impacts their own population in the least possible way," Jaishankar said at a public event in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh state.
Jaishankar - Face of India's Defense of Russian Oil Imports
This isn't the first time India's EAM has been critical about the US and its Western allies trying to exert pressure on New Delhi in their bid to wean the world's largest democratic nation away from its long-time strategic partner Russia.
Earlier this year, Jaishankar took the European Union (EU) to task after it called for action against India for reselling Russian oil that was refined in Indian refineries.
"Look at the EU Council regulations. Russian crude is substantially transformed in the third country and not treated as Russian anymore. I would urge you to look at Council's Regulation 833/2014," Jaishankar commented.