Describing India as a “big country” with a “big influence” on the Russian economy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday said if India and Indians “change their attitude” towards Russia, the war will end because Russian President Vladimir Putin will end it. He was talking of India’s “record breaking” deals for oil from Russia.
Acknowledging the discussion on India’s energy purchases from Russia in the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Zelensky, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said the Indian side explained to the Ukrainian side the energy market scenario and the need for prices to remain “reasonable and stable”.
In an hour-long interaction with the visiting Indian media, Mr. Zelensky described his meeting with Mr. Modi as “very good” and “historic”. On the top issues during talks, he said, was India’s oil purchase from Russia.
“Because today many possibilities of Russian exports are closed, your country is open,” he said. “If you stop import of oil, Putin will have huge challenges.”
He said that Mr. Putin has a war economy and billions coming from India or China helped him. “We should stop giving money in strengthening Russian arms,” he stressed.
He said that Mr. Putin “never respected” Mr. Modi which is why Russia bombed a hospital in Ukraine at the same time the Indian Prime Minister was in Moscow last month.
Asked if the issue of India’s stance on resolutions at the United Nations was discussed, he said it was not. “We are not happy that we didn’t get Indian support. We have to now speak before the resolutions. We don’t have time to looks at the past. I want to build something good, something positive,” he said.
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“I very much want your country on our side” and not balancing, Mr. Zelensky went on and said, “May be your country is key to this…”
Stating that there needs to be a win-win situation between the two countries, the Ukrainian President said there are opportunities for collaboration, including co-development and co-production, in high tech sectors such as defence.
Mr. Jaishankar noted that many energy producers had been sanctioned, making the market potentially very tight. “Why today there is a compulsion, in fact not just a compulsion, why it is in the interest of the international economy as a whole that prices remain reasonable and stable,” he said during a media briefing.
Noting that India is a big oil consumer and an importer, Mr. Jaishankar said, “There is an oil strategy to buy oil. There is a market strategy to buy oil. So the figures of where we get our oil imports go up and down. It depends on the state of the market. But it would definitely… I think the fact that the market is tight, that today big suppliers like Iran and Venezuela, who used to supply India, are constrained from operating freely in the markets, I think is a factor which needs to be taken into account,” he added.
To another question, Mr. Zelensky said none of the Indians fighting in the Russian Army are in their captivity. “If I know we have I will release them,” he added.
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