India remains an "important player" in the global diamond trade and has "strong connections" to major diamond hubs across the world, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesman Randhir Jaiswal told a regular press briefing in New Delhi on Thursday.
"We have global manufacturing happening in India... we are one of the major centres of global diamond trade, global polishing, value additions happen in India. We are an important player in that sector," Jaiswal said, responding to a question from Sputnik India on whether India and the European Union (EU) were involved in talks to establish "diamond verification centres" in India.
Jaiswal wouldn't say if there were ongoing discussions between New Delhi and Brussels on the matter.
However, the MEA spokesman highlighted linkages between Indian diamond industry and other global centres.
"There are strong connections between Surat and Antwerp, and other centres which are on the global diamond map," the Indian official said.
The comments came as a leading Belgian diamond industry association last week announced that it was "pro-actively advocating" for implementation of "rough verification points outside the G7".
The announcement by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), the official representative of Belgium's diamond industry, came against the backdrop of growing discomfiture of African and Indian diamond industries over the "traceability" mechanism, part of the G7 plan to ban Russian diamond imports.
According to terms of G7's original plan announced in December, diamonds roughs weighing over 0.5 carat, which are bound for western markets, would have to be routed through Antwerp to certify that they didn't originate in Russia.
Protests by Africa and India
While 19 African countries, which are part of African Diamond Producers' Association (ADPA) account for nearly 60 percent of the global diamond production, India has a reputation of being the world's biggest diamond processing and polishing centre.
According to industry statistics, nearly 90 percent of the diamond roughs are imported and polished in western Indian city of Surat before being exported, primarily to the US, Hong Kong and European markets.
Significantly, Russian diamond major Alrosa has been the primary supplier of roughs for the Indian industry.
India's Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal told the Bharat Diamond Bourse in Mumbai this month that New Delhi reserved the right to "retaliate" against EU if Indian diamond traders were forced to route their products through Belgium.