‘Do what’s best for India’: Jaishankar recalls PM Modi’s advice over oil purchases

He said the petrol prices doubled due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict which also shifted pressure on India that from where the country should purchase the oil, according to the news agency ANI.

Jaishankar said during the Russia-Ukraine war, PM Modi called both Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a ceasefire for some time so that Indian students can be safely evacuated.

The minister had earlier said that India is concerned over the spike in the price of oil due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and said it is “breaking our back.”

Amid rising fuel prices and West sanctions against Russia, there has been a 50-times hike in Russian oil imports to India. The trend is in complete contrast to that of developed countries of the West, which are gradually cutting down on their energy trade with Russia post-Ukraine invasion.

Now Russian oil accounts for 10 per cent of the total crude imported from overseas. Russian oil made up just 0.2 per cent of all oil imported by India before the Ukraine war.

Even when the sanctions imposed by the western nations are hardly impacting Russia’s actions in Ukraine, the G-7 countries and the European Union have brought an oil cap on Russian crude and refined products to limit Kremlin’s revenues.

It is pertinent to mention that India has been constantly calling on both Russia and Ukraine to end the war and choose dialogue along with diplomacy.

PM Modi had also told Putin that now is not a time for war, with food, fertilizer and fuel security among the major concerns of the world at present, on the sidelines of a regional security bloc summit in Uzbekistan in September this year.

Earlier in July this year, PM Modi urged Putin to use diplomacy and negotiation to settle the Ukraine conflict. The Prime Minister had also made peace and an end to hostilities appeals to both Russia and Ukraine since the conflict in Ukraine broke out on February 24.

During their conversation over the past few months, PM Modi had also discussed the impact of the conflict in Eastern Europe on the food security situation, particularly in vulnerable nations, with world leaders at the G7 outreach summit.

France and India have been in touch with each other on the Ukraine crisis and the issue figured prominently during telephonic talks in recent months between Modi and Macron.

On Friday, Putin annexed four territories in Ukraine controlled by his army at a grand ceremony in the Kremlin and urged Kyiv to lay down its arms and negotiate an end to seven months of fighting.

(With ANI inputs)