Russia welcomes India's decision to not support G7's price cap on oil

Moscow has welcomes India's decision to not support the price cap on Russian oil announced by the G7 and their allies. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak made the statement during his meeting with India's Ambassador to Russia, Pavan Kapoor. Novak stressed that Russia is responsibly fulfilling its contractual obligations for the supply of energy resources, diversifying energy exports to the countries in the east and south amid the energy crisis. Earlier in September, G7 nations agreed to impose a price cap on oil imports from Russia.

According to the statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry, Russian oil imports to India rose to 16.35 million tonnes in the first eight months of 2022. Notably, India continues to import oil from Russia despite the ongoing war between Moscow and Kyiv. The Ministry of External Affairs has defended the decision of purchasing Russian oil. During the meeting with Pavan Kapoor, Novak invited the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri to take part in the international forum, Russian Energy Week 2023, which is scheduled to be held in Moscow from October 11-13, 2023. During the meeting, the two sides noted the record growth in trade between Russia and India. Kapoor and Novak expressed the desire to continue the interaction, increasing cooperation on trade in energy resources like oil, petroleum products, liquefied natural gas, coal and fertiliser.

Meanwhile, former diplomat and senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor praised external affairs minister S Jaishankar for India's stance on a UN resolution establishing humanitarian exemption across all United Nations sanctions regimes. India abstained on the resolution tabled by the US and Ireland to create a sanctions carve-out that exempted humanitarian efforts, asserting that blacklisted terror groups, including in its neighbourhood, have taken full advantage of such carve-outs and have been able to raise funds and recruit fighters. India, currently presiding over the UN Security Council, was the sole abstention while all other 14 members of the Council voted in favour of the resolution.