NEW DELHI: Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov is likely to visit India this week amid Russia’s isolation by the West over the ongoing war against Ukraine. The focus of the visit is expected to be discussions on a payment system for India’s procurement of oil and military hardware from Russia.
Lavrov’s visit comes days after Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s unscheduled visit to New Delhi. It is learnt that Lavrov will arrive here after concluding a two-day visit to China. It would be the highest-level visit from Russia to India after Moscow launched its military offensive against Ukraine on February 24. There has been no official word on the visit by either side.
India is likely to import nearly 10 million tonnes of crude oil from Russia at a discount of $20 per barrel. The state-run oil companies have committed to buy 6 million tonnes while private firms are negotiating for importing 4 million tonnes.
It is understood that India is working on a rupee-rouble exchange, which would allow it and Russia to carry out financial operations by bypassing the US dollar. The Centre is working on a proposal to permit five nationalised Indian banks to engage in the rouble trade.
“It may be a diplomatic tight-rope for India as it has favourable relations with US too, but with the increase in crude price globally this is a viable option for India as it does not want to burden the consumers with a steep hike in the cost of fuel,” say sources.
The Ministry of External Affairs, on the issue of India importing oil from Russia, had said that many European nations were still buying oil from Russia, so India wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary.