India-Russia talks: Amid sanctions, Moscow offers India steep discounts on oil: Report
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India's foreign minister S Jaishankar has hit out at concerns being raised over India buying Russian oil, saying that 'it’s like a campaign on this issue'
Moscow has offered India steep discounts on the direct sales of oil as per a report published in Bloomberg.
To lure India to lift more shipments, Russia is offering its flagship Urals grade to India at discounts of as much as $35 a barrel on prices before it invaded Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Delhi late Thursday from China. "We appreciate that India is taking this situation in the entirety of facts and not just in a one-sided way," Lavrov said in his opening remarks during a meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
India has also contracted to buy sunflower oil from Russia at a record high price after supplies from Ukraine stopped due to the war.
It has abstained from UN resolutions censuring Moscow and continues to buy Russian oil from its "longstanding and time-tested friend" and biggest supplier of arms.
India and Russia are working on a rupee-ruble mechanism to facilitate trade and get around Western sanctions on Russian banks, according to media reports.
Russia has written to India's defence ministry requesting clearance of payments worth $1.3 billion that have been halted since last month, according to the Economic Times newspaper.
"India's intake of Russian oil has been very small for many, many years," said Vandana Hari, founder of oil market analysis provider Vanda Insights in Singapore.
"So the refineries are not configured to buy a lot of Russian oil."
India's foreign minister S Jaishankar has hit out at concerns being raised over India buying Russian oil, saying that “it’s like a campaign on this issue”.
Defending India’s position, Jaishankar said, “When oil prices go up it is natural for countries to go out into the market and look for what are the good deals for their people. I am pretty sure if we wait two or three months, and actually look at who are the big buyers of Russian gas and oil, I suspect the list will not be very different from what it used to be, and I suspect we won’t be on the top 10 on that list.”
(With inputs from agencies)
