More western countries soften to India's purchase of Russian oil

India's strong and vigorous diplomatic campaign over the last several months has finally paid off, with the United States and its allies in the West softening on the opposition to New Delhi's decision to continue to purchase discounted oil from Russia.

- T. BRAJESH

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Washington and its western allies leaned on countries including India to buy either less or no oil from Russia in a bid to punish Moscow for its military operations against Kyiv. But India did the opposite, justifying and defending its stand to continue to buy Russian oil.

New Delhi reached out to the western countries through diplomatic channels in a bid to persuade them to shed their obduracy. The positive signals came from various countries from time to time. In a big development, now the US has said that India’s buying of Russian oil was a “sovereign decision”. When asked about the increase in petroleum purchases by India from Russia in recent months, Elizabeth Jones, the newly-appointed US charge d’affaires in New Delhi, said: “It’s a sovereign decision. It has to be a sovereign decision.” The top US diplomat’s remark acquires significance as it has come in the backdrop of India’s assertion that it will continue with the purchases in its national interests. Germany, France, UK and some other key western countries have already dropped their opposition to India continuing oil purchases from Moscow. There are only some EU nations which have not changed their mind, but they will fall in line with others soon, diplomatic sources told The Sunday Guardian.