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By India Today News Desk: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday advised EU Foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to have a look at EU Council regulations after the latter earlier said the European Union should crackdown on India reselling Russian oil as refined fuels, including diesel, into Europe, as Western nations move to tighten sanctions on Moscow’s energy sector.
“Look at the EU Council regulations. Russian crude is substantially transformed in the third country and not treated as Russian anymore. I would urge you to look at Council’s Regulation 833/2014,” Jaishankar said in Brussels, as he responded to Borrell’s remarks calling for action against Indian refined products from Russian crude.
On Monday, Jaishankar arrived in Brussels for the last leg of his three-nation visit covering Bangladesh, Sweden and Belgium.
On earlier occasions, Jaishankar had defended India’s imports from Russia while indirectly criticising the West for pressurising New Delhi to minimise its trade with Russia in view of its military action in Ukraine.
“Our trade with Russia is at a very small level — $12-13 billion, in comparison to European countries. We have also given the Russians a set of products… I don’t think people should read more into it other than the legitimate expectations of any trading country to increase its trade,” Jaishankar had said in last December while addressing a joint press conference with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock.
“I would urge you to look at these figures. There is a website called ‘Russia Fossil Fuel Tracker’ that would give you country-by-country data of who is really importing what and I suspect that might be very helpful,” he had added.
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