US Ambassador Eric Garcetti: ‘Wanted India to buy Russian oil to stabilise prices’

US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti has said that the United States had encouraged India to purchase Russian oil to stabilise global commodity prices. Speaking at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations last week, Ambassador Garcetti stated, "They brought Russian Oil because we wanted somebody to buy Russian oil at a price cap, that was not a violation. It was the design of the policy because as a design of the commodity we didn't want the price of the commodity to go up, they fulfilled that."

The Ambassador's comments show a U-turn in US policy towards Russian energy imports by India. In the aftermath of the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict, the US publicly urged countries, including India, to reduce their dependence on Russian energy sources. The then US deputy NSA Daleep Singh had visited Delhi in early 2022 during which he warned of "consequences" if India continued to increase its imports of Russian energy. He made the remarks at a select press briefing.

Evidently, this stance was reinforced in April of the same year when the White House explicitly advised India against accelerating or expanding its imports of Russian energy.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has also repeatedly acknowledged the pressure exerted on India to refrain from purchasing Russian oil. During an address in Amritsar last week, Jaishankar highlighted the economic implications, stating that if India had yielded to this pressure, petrol prices would have surged by at least Rs 20 per litre.

At the Council on Foreign Relations address, Ambassador Garcetti also underscored the enduring bond between the US and India, describing it as a "loyal relationship." He emphasised the deep people-to-people connections, he said, "Everybody that is in power there (in India), has family, has studied, served in the US. It is smart power advantage'"