Jaishankar remark at 2+2 draws praise from Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi: ‘Superb’

Foreign minister S Jaishankar’s sharp remarks on India’s oil purchase from Russia received an unexpected thumbs-up from opposition leader Priyanka Chaturvedi on Tuesday. While the world is finding measures to punish Moscow as the Ukraine war is set to complete seven weeks, Jaishankar – after the 2+2 ministerial talks in Washington asserted – that every country “needs to secure its energy needs’ ‘.

“If you’re looking at (India’s) energy purchases from Russia, I’d suggest your attention should be on Europe. We buy some energy necessary for our energy security. But I suspect, looking at figures, our purchases for the month would be less than what Europe does in an afternoon,” he underlined.

“We’re against the conflict, we’re up for a dialogue and diplomacy, we’re for urgent cessation of violence and we are prepared to contribute in whatever way we can,” Jaishankar further said.

Sharing the video of his comments, Shiv Sena’s Chaturvedi on Tuesday tweeted: “Superb from EAM!” with an emoji of applause.

Several countries, including the United States, have slapped multiple sanctions over the Kremlin over waging war on Ukraine despite appeals from the West for peace.

However, the White House previously underlined that India’s energy imports from Russia is just 1-2 per cent of the total imports.

“Energy imports are not banned and they don’t violate our sanctions. We certainly recognise that every country is going to take a step in their interest… (on India’s plans for import of Russian oil) I will let prime minister Modi and Indians speak on that. It’s only 1-2 per cent at this point… they export 10 per cent from the United States. It is no violation of any sanctions…” White House press secretary Jen Psaki insisted at the latest media briefing.

While India has not voted against Russia at the United Nations, it has repeatedly appealed for an end to the violence where Moscow has been accused of mass killings and even rape.

During a virtual meeting with US president Joe Biden, prime minister Narendra Modi on Monday also spoke about the Bucha mass killings.