EAM Jaishankar meets Russian President Putin, both leaders discuss ways to expand India-Russia ties

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday met Russian President Vladimir Putin and discussed ways to further expand India-Russia ties. The meeting between the two leaders came hours after Jaishankar held wide-ranging talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that largely focused on expanding the trade ties between the two countries.

Jaishankar, Putin discuss ways to expand India-Russia ties

“We believe that relations between India and Russia have been among the steadiest of the major relationships in the world after the Second World War,” Jaishankar said at a joint media briefing with Lavrov.

“Geo-political convergence, leadership contacts and popular sentiment remain its key drivers,” he said.

Jaishankar says India not biggest purchaser of Russian oil

Earlier in the day, Jaishankar said India is neither the biggest purchaser of Russian oil nor it has the biggest trade surge with Moscow after 2022.

Jaishankar made the remarks in response to a question at a joint media briefing with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

“We are not the biggest purchaser of Russian oil. That is China. We are not the biggest purchaser of Russian LNG. I’m not sure, but I think that is the European Union,” he said.

India doesn’t have the biggest trade surge with Russia

“We are not the country which has the biggest trade surge with Russia after 2022. I think there are some countries to the south,” he added.

Jaishankar, who is on a three-day visit to Moscow, also suggested that the US was supportive of India procuring crude oil from Russia as it stabilised the energy market.

“We are a country where actually the Americans said for the last few years that we should do everything to stabilise the world energy markets, including buying oil from Russia,” Jaishankar said.

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