India's Growing Assertiveness- Sovereignty

External Affairs Minister, S.Jaishankar this week countered the campaign of the west that India needs to buy less oil from Russia by citing statistics that Europe bought 15% more Oil & Gas in March  from Russia and that Most major buyers from Russia are from Europe. 

The strong assertiveness that India has the sovereignty to go out and explore cheaper deals in the Oil & Gas market and buy at discount has won admiration from all Indians. External affairs minister Jaishankar mentioned this at the Indo-UK strategic futures forum. The West expects India to be subdued, listen to what they say for it has done so in the past during UPA rule. During NDA rule, they are finding that it is not easy to force India for India has a stable mass adored government, not a coalition which foreign forces could manipulate with t

their influencers. 

The decision to abstain from voting against Russia itself was the most admired Nationalist move in recent times. Every Indian subscribes to support for Russia more than the USA since Russia has always supported India in the United Nations. India is also dependent on Russia for defence procurement. Russia is also the only nation that can talk with China. The USA does not have any leverage over China. Hence it makes practical sense for India to go with Russia rather than support Nato’s expansionism in Ukraine. India is also trading in Rupee-Rubles in its SPFS communication channel instead of Dollars due to USA’s sanctions.  If Europe is paying through SPFS, there would be no reason why India would not be able to do so. 

Europe buys forty percent of its gas from Russia. It cannot think of alternatives being offered by the USA at this moment. Russian president,Vladimir Putin had decreed that it would insist on rouble payment only for Gas from unfriendly countries. Gazprom has exited its business in Germany over the pricing issue. Russia is also exploring restricting arrivals from unfriendly countries in response to the sanctions imposed on them by those nations. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a state visit to India this week also reiterated that India and Russia ties were "very sustainable" during many "difficult times" in the past and Russia strongly trusted its continued cooperation. He also said that he believes that “Indian foreign policies are characterised by independence and the concentration on real national legitimate interests”.