The Centre on Thursday assured the Rajya Sabha that all aspects linked to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, including impact on trade, are being examined by a group of different Ministries led by the Union Finance Ministry.
“…Because of the emerging problems in dealing with Russia, our government is examining various aspects, including the payment aspect. There is a group within the government composed of different ministries. It is led by Finance Ministry to examine these matters,” said Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar while replying to a supplementary question asked by Shiromani Akali Dal leader Naresh Gujral during Question Hour.
Gujral mentioned that India has been facing a day-to-day problem when it comes to trade with Russia and said that the West is playing a double game as they continue to import petroleum from Russia while lecturing us (India) not to trade with them.
“For many years India had a policy and we used to do rupee trade with Russia. Is the government thinking on those lines so that our exports are not hurt and we continue to import from Russia?” Gujral asked.
Jaishankar then clarified that India imports very little oil from Russia.
“It is less than one per cent of our imports. And many other countries import 10, 15, 20 times…” Jaishankar said.
Replying to another supplementary query of Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Manoj Jha, the Minister said that India is very clear on its policy “which is very much guided by our belief that the international border must respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state.”
“At the same time, what is happening in our neighbourhood is obviously it is in our attention. There is a lot of development taking place and we are monitoring them very carefully,” said Jaishankar.
Noting that India had a robust policy from 1947 onwards whenever territorial integrity or sovereignty is violated anywhere in the world, Jha had asked “Are we in sync with the same kind of policy as far as our statement is concerned on the Ukraine-Russia issue? Are we (India) watching realignment in our immediate neighbourhood?”
On another supplementary question asked by BJP leader Swapan Das Gupta, Jaishankar said “our (India’s) position is for peace”.
“When the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) spoke to (Russian) President Putin three times and he spoke to (Ukraine) President Zelensky two times, the intent at that time was to evacuate Indian students as it was a very big issue. But there was also a larger conversation about what we could do to lead to encourage a secession of hostilities and return to diplomacy and dialogue. Today, that sentiment is widely shared by many countries in the world,” the External Affairs Minister said.
Pointing at increasing polarization, Gupta had asked “Is this going to have any negative impact on some of our (India’s) closest allies?” (ANI)
