Amid speculations that India would buy more crude from Russia at discounted price, and possible rupee-rouble arrangement for trade, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met external affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar in New Delhi.
In the last 48 hours the US Deputy NSA, UK Foreign Secretary and the Russian Foreign minister have all lashed out at each other in New Delhi.
The two leaders talked about the implications of the ongoing crisis on trade and economic relations. The Russian side briefed India on the situation and the ongoing talks with Ukraine. External Affairs minister Dr Jaishankar once again emphasised the cessation of violence and to resolve the crisis through dialogue and diplomacy. And stated that the UN Charter, International Law and Sovereignty should be respected. The situation in Afghanistan, the need to reach humanitarian aid to the people of that country, Iran and JCPOA was also discussed by the two sides.
“Our relations have grown and this meeting takes place in a difficult environment, apart from the pandemic,” said Dr S Jaishankar in his opening remarks. Adding, “India has always been in favour of resolving differences and disputes through diplomacy and dialogue.”
The Russian foreign minister said that the ties between the two countries have been very strong despite many difficulties, adding that Russia continues to implement projects in various areas including science, energy, pharmaceuticals, and more.
On Ukraine he said in his opening remarks that the Russian position is known and nothing is hidden. He asked India to take Russia’s position in the entirety and not in a one sided way.
Expressing appreciation that India is taking the situation in the “entirety of effect and not just one-sided way’’ the Russian minister added, “We are interested in having a balanced world order which makes it sustainable. These days our western colleagues would like to reduce any meaningful international issue to the crisis in Ukraine.”
The minister came straight from Tunxi after holding talks with the Chinese government, the Taliban officials who were present at the conference related to Afghanistan and its neighbours. New Delhi was not invited for the conference. On the sidelines, he also had a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Since the time Russia had declared war on Ukraine, this was Mr Lavarov’s first visit to China.
In his talks with his Indian counterpart, the Russian minister, according to sources, urged India to participate in the BRICS summit expected to take place later this year in China. His visit to India comes close to the unannounced visit of the Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit in March.
Sources confirmed to Financial Express Online that during his meeting in New Delhi, the Russian minister gave assurance that pending defence deals will be expedited and urged India to enhance energy imports as well as food security.
Financial Express Online has reported earlier that the besides the delivery of the pending four S-400 air defence missile systems for Indian Air Force (IAF), the delivery of 12 Su-30, MiG-29 upgrade kits for 59 aircraft, 21 additional MiG-29 aircraft, two frigates which are under production in one of the shipyards in Russia, the lease of the INS Chakra, are expected to be delayed.
In 2020, India had reached out to Russia to expedite the delivery of these following the clash between the Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control. India has already urged Russia to jointly manufacture spare parts and components for the different military platforms being used by the Indian armed forces.
Energy Partnership
The focus of the visit has been on India buying crude from that country at discounted price and to plan out a payment plan based on rupee-rouble. According to reports, the sanctions-hit country is offering its flagship Urals grade to India at discounted price of as much as USD 35 a barrel on prices before the war in an effort to attract India to lift more shipments.
To begin with what Russia wants Russia India to do is to take 15 million barrels contracted for this year just to begin.
Moscow and New Delhi are working out some other payment modes in view of the Western sanctions against Russia. Russia is keen to use national currencies bypassing the dollar and euro in an effort to break the dependency on these currencies.
The rupee-rouble mechanism had existed during the erstwhile Soviet Union era. This was designed to bypass payments in US dollars due to tensions between Moscow and the US. India has used the mechanism of payment in rupee-rouble for the items it purchased from Russia.
In an earlier press conference in New Delhi, top diplomats of the Russian embassy had indicated that the mechanism of currency swap would be re-started as it did not want to depend on the dollar payment mechanism.
Sunflower Oil
According to reports, since supplies from Ukraine have stopped due to the ongoing crisis, India contracted to buy sunflower oil from Russia at a record high price.