Indian External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar said on Wednesday that New Delhi's decision to ramp up its crude imports from Russia in the wake of Ukraine conflict not only benefited the Indian economy, but was also good for the global economy.
"Had we not stood our ground on buying energy from Russia, very frankly, all of you would be paying much more for your energy. More countries would have gone to a narrow set of suppliers and actually raised the world energy prices," Jaishankar said during an interaction with members of the Indian diaspora in Kuala Lumpur.
The Indian EAM is on a three-nation visit to Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia before returning to New Delhi on Thursday.
"So, if I look at it from the perspective of global economy, and from my own (India's) perspective, we actually did the right thing," stated Jaishankar.
"We have started to define ourselves in a variety of ways, partly by being much truer to our culture, tradition and civilisation, by being much more confident about it. By not letting others play mind games with us. There are very clever ways today in world politics to keep you down," the top Indian diplomat stressed.
"What happens when you don't have confidence, when you have grown up thinking there's great wisdom in other parts of the world, everywhere except your own home. Then, you tend naturally to import solutions," he said.
Since last year, Russian crude supplies have accounted for almost a third of India's overall oil imports, up from just 0.2 percent before February 2022.
India meets around 85 percent of its crude requirements through imports, according to official data.
Moscow has consistently been India's top energy crude supplier since last year and is expected to sustain its top position this year as well.