NEW DELHI: India’s Union Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has strongly defended the country’s choice to keep buying crude oil from Russia, saying that New Delhi’s position has stabilized global markets and stopped a huge price rise from happening. Puri said in an essay for The Hindu on Monday that he was responding directly to the growing criticism from U.S. authorities, particularly a recent comment from White House trade adviser Peter Navarro that was racially charged.
Puri’s answer comes after the U.S. put more pressure on India to stop buying oil from Russia. Peter Navarro told Fox News on Sunday that “Brahmins” were “profiteering at the expense of the Indian people” and that the practice needs to “stop.” He also said that India was “nothing but a laundromat for the Kremlin” and that it was “fueling the Russian war machine.” Navarro’s comments were similar to those made previously by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who also accused India’s richest families of making money from the trade.
Puri strongly disagreed with these allegations in his column. Some people say that India has become a “laundromat” for Russian oil. He wrote, “Nothing could be more wrong.” He stressed that India’s oil imports are “in line with a G-7 price cap mechanism that was meant to keep crude flowing while limiting Moscow’s income.” Puri also said that India has “not broken any rules” and that its “adherence to all international norms prevented a catastrophic $200 per barrel shock.”
The data tell a strong story. Before the Ukraine conflict, Russia only made up a small part of India’s oil imports. But today, according to Kpler, it makes up a huge 37% of India’s crude purchases this year. The big rise was caused by Russia’s offer of a $20 per barrel discount after European countries stopped buying. The discount has gotten smaller since then, but it is still very important.
The argument over Russian oil imports is changing from a strictly economic one to a political one, about India’s freedom to make its own decisions in foreign policy. According to analysts at CLSA, India is unlikely to stop these imports unless there is a global embargo, which would lead oil prices to rise sharply around the world. The report also says that Indian refiners, led by Reliance Industries Ltd. and Nayara Energy, are likely to buy more Russian oil in September, even though the U.S. just raised tariffs on Russian oil by 50%.
Puri ended his post by making a very important point that skeptics often miss: “The truth is that there is no substitute for the world’s second-largest producer supplying nearly 10% of global oil.” He said that India’s efforts have been important for keeping the global market stable, and he thinks that people who are blaming India are missing this point.