Securing energy needs overriding priority: Govt’s firm reply to NATO

Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said, “We have seen reports on the subject and are closely following the developments. Let me reiterate that securing the energy needs of our people is understandably an overriding priority for us. In this endeavour, we are guided by what is on offer in the markets, and by the prevailing global circumstances. We would particularly caution against any double standards on the matter.”

He was responding to Rutte who, while speaking to reporters after meeting US senators Wednesday, said, “If you are the President of China, the Prime Minister of India, or the President of Brazil, and you continue to trade with Russia and buy their oil and gas, then you know: if the man in Moscow doesn’t take the (Ukraine war) peace negotiations seriously, I will impose 100 per cent secondary sanctions.”

“My encouragement to these three countries, particularly, is: if you live now in Beijing, or in Delhi, or you are the President of Brazil, you might want to take a look into this, because this might hit you very hard,” he said.

Rutte also urged the leaders of the three nations to directly urge Putin to commit to peace talks. “So please make the phone call to Vladimir Putin and tell him that he has to get serious about peace talks, because otherwise this will slam back on Brazil, on India, and on China in a massive way,” he said.

Petroleum Minister Puri, speaking at the UrjaVarta 2025 event in New Delhi, said, “I don’t feel any pressure in my mind. India has diversified the sources of supply… I am not worried at all. If something happens, we will deal with it… There is sufficient supply available.”

He said India, in recent years, had expanded its crude sourcing slate from 27 countries to around 40 countries.

India and China are the top importers of Russian crude, and Delhi is engaging with US lawmakers and the Trump administration to voice concerns regarding India’s energy security. India depends on imports to meet around 88 per cent of its crude oil needs, and Russia has been the mainstay of India’s oil imports for nearly three years now. Russia currently accounts for around 40 per cent of India’s total oil imports.

According to Puri, the massive market share of Russian crude in India’s oil imports doesn’t mean that the country is dependent on Russia for oil, and other suppliers can quickly come in to replace Russian volumes if there is any major disruption.

Even in the case of Russia, the country used to account for less than 2 per cent of India’s oil imports prior to the war in Ukraine, but quickly displaced heavyweights like Iraq and Saudi Arabia to become the top supplier after much of the West began shunning Russian crude after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Russia then began offering discounts on its oil to willing buyers, and Indian refiners were quick to avail the opportunity, ramping up imports of discounted Russian barrels.

So far, India has not scaled back on its oil imports from Russia, maintaining that it is willing to buy oil from whoever offers the best price, as long as the oil is not under sanctions. Russian oil itself is not sanctioned, but the US and its allies have imposed a price cap of $60 per barrel, as per which Western shippers and insurers cannot participate in Russian oil trade if the price of Moscow’s crude is above that level.

It is yet to be seen if the recent tariff threats made against countries like India and China for their energy imports from Russia will translate into tangible tariff action. The Trump administration has been rather mercurial on trade tariffs: making sweeping announcements, then pausing and negotiating. The hope in India’s oil sector is that the US won’t actually implement tariffs related to India’s oil imports from Russia, as it is in the interest of the US and the global economy that the international oil market remains well-supplied. If Russia is unable to supply its crude, global oil prices are bound to rise due to lower supply being available.

But if the US goes ahead and imposes such tariffs, India would be pushed to cut down oil imports from Russia and increase imports from other suppliers, primarily its traditional West Asian suppliers like Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, which would push up the cost of imports by a few dollars a barrel.