Jaishankar Defends India's Russia Ties At Munich, Blinken Smiles

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has once again defended India's decision to buy oil from Russia despite opposition from the West.

Speaking at a panel during the ongoing Munich Security Conference, Jaishankar, alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, underscored India's commitment to maintaining relationships with both the United States and Russia despite the ongoing geopolitical complexities.

When asked about India's balancing act between the United States and Russia, the Indian Minister said, "Is that a problem, why should that be a problem? If I am smart enough to have multiple options, you should be admiring me. Is that a problem for others? I don't think so, suddenly in this case. We try to explain what are the different pulls and pressures that countries have. it's very hard to have that unidimensional relationship."

However, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken could not stop but smiled over Jaishankar's remarks.

"Different countries and different relationships have different histories. If I want to look at the US and Germany, it is rooted. There is an alliance, nature to it. There is a certain history on which that relationship is grounded. In our case it's very different, so I don't want you to even inadvertently give the impression that we are purely unsentimentally transactional. We are not, we get along with people, we believe in things, we share things, and we agree on some things but there are time when you are located in different places have different levels of development, and different experiences all of that gets into that," Jaishankar added.

"Life is complicated, life is differentiated. and I think it's very important today. I agree with Antony which is, good partners provide choices, smart partners take some of the choices. But sometimes, there will be choices, you say I'll pass on that," he stated further.

The 60th Munich Security Conference (MSC) commenced as an in-person event from February 16th to 18th at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich.

He also tried to project India as 'non-West', having extremely strong relations with Western countries that are getting stronger. "I think, it's important today to make a distinction, between being non-West and anti-West, I'd not only characterize India as a country, which is non-West but which has an extremely strong relation with the Western countries, getting better by the days. Not everybody necessarily in that grouping might qualify for that description, but the contribution the BRICS has made, if one looks at G7 and how it evolved into the G20," he said.

"I think in a way, those additional 13 members who came into this bigger grouping, 5 of them are BRICS members, the fact that there was another group which was meeting regularly and discussing at the meeting, I think certainly was input into the expansion of G7 into the G20. So, I think we did our service to the world," the EAM added.

This is not the first time where S Jaishankar has defended India's decision to continue trade with Russia. Responding to criticism in 2022, he had said, "If you're looking at (India's)energy purchases from Russia, I'd suggest your attention should be on Europe. We buy some energy necessary for our energy security. But I suspect, looking at figures, our purchases for the month would be less than what Europe does in an afternoon."