Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov defended India’s oil trade with Russia, calling US pressure 'enormous and unjustified.' He praised PM Modi’s foreign policy, stressing that India acts on national interests as a great power. Lavrov also slammed Western double standards and affirmed continued India–Russia energy cooperation.
00:00India has continued purchasing Russian oil, even as the United States has pressed countries to reduce such imports.
00:09First of all, how do you view this relationship with India in this context?
00:13And what does it mean for India-Russia relations more broadly? Thank you.
00:19I can't...
00:21These situations that might arise between India and the United States or India and any other country
00:29– I can't consider them a criteria for relations between India and the Russian Federation.
00:38We have strategic partnership, as we call it, for a long time, strategic partnership relations.
00:47At a certain point, our Indian friends proposed supplementing that term,
00:54and we now call it a privileged strategic partnership.
00:57And a little bit later, our Indian friends proposed another clarification,
01:03and now we call it a particularly privileged strategic partnership.
01:07We have full respect for the national interests of India, full respect for the foreign policy
01:17that Narendra Modi is carrying out to promote these national interests.
01:25We hold regular contacts at the highest level.
01:27Just recently, Prime Minister Modi and President Putin met in Tianjin at the ASEO Summit in China.
01:38And in December, a visit is being planned to – a visit from Mr. Putin is being planned to New Delhi.
01:48We have a very extensive bilateral agenda, trade, military-technical cooperation, finance, humanitarian matters,
01:58healthcare, high-tech, artificial intelligence, and, of course, close coordination at the international level within the ASEO, BRICS, and bilaterally.
02:15This year, my colleague – I spoke to him yesterday, Subharani Jashankar – well, he will visit Russia, I will visit India.
02:24We hold regular exchanges.
02:28And I heard – I'm not even asking what is going to happen to our trade relations, our oil.
02:35I don't ask our Indian colleagues this.
02:38They are perfectly capable of making these decisions for themselves.
02:42And publicly, my friend who I referenced earlier, when he was asked a similar question, said,
02:47if the U.S. wants to sell their oil to us, we are prepared to discuss the terms for this.
02:53But what we buy from other countries – not the United States, but from Russia or other countries – that's our own business.
03:04And that has nothing to do with the Indian-U.S. agenda, and I believe that that is a very worthy response that shows that India, like Turkey, has self-respect.
03:18And that's what comes in for what the other countries I mentioned as they talked about.
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