NEW DELHI: Russia is completely in sync with what Prime Minister, Narendra Modi said in Samakarkand on the sidelines of the SCO summit that today is not the era of war, the Russian ambassador to India, Denis Alipov said on Friday.
“Also, President Vladimir Putin told PM Modi that he himself wants to end the war. However, the West is trying to misconstrue this and take it out of context. Russia too wants to end the war, and our approach doesn’t differ from that of India as we too want a cessation of violence. Having said that there is an unbreakable friendship between our two nations,’’ said Alipov, adding that both countries want a peaceful end to the conflict in Ukraine.
India and Russia have strong defence, and energy ties and they are continuing to grow. However, Russia is categoric that those countries who follow the US proposal of an oil cap won’t be permitted to buy oil from them. “If we consider the prices are not fair and unacceptable to us, we would simply stop supplying the oil to global markets and to those countries that join the US initiative on the price cap,” Alipov said at a press conference here.
He said Russia would not follow any mechanism detrimental to its trade interests. With sanctions imposed by western nations making a scant impact on Russia, the G-7 countries and the European Union have mooted an oil price cap on Russian crude and refined products to limit Kremlin’s revenues.
Earlier this month, a statement issued by G-7 Finance Ministers said the price cap was specifically designed to reduce Russian revenues and its ability to fund the Ukraine war. Alipov said the price cap will lead to an acute shortage of oil in the global markets and the price would sharply go up.
The US has asked India to join the coalition to cap the prices of Russian oil, but New Delhi has said it would “carefully examine” the proposal before taking any decision. Since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, there have been constant references to the Rupee Rubal trade, which has also been under speculation.
“As far as India and Russia are concerned we have followed the Rupee Rubal payment mechanism since 2014 for defence cooperation and we can consider expanding this mechanism to cover other sectors,’’ Alipov added.
Alipov also spoke about Russia, India, and China cooperation and referred to it as a trilateral which can be enhanced through dialogue. He also spoke about developing an atmosphere of goodwill, cooperation and trust between India and China, however, regarding the boundary issues between the two nations he said it was best left for the two of them to resolve.
“The issues between India, and China are bilateral and we do not want to get involved in this. We would encourage them to find a quick resolution to the border dispute,’’ he added. Meanwhile, regarding the conflict in Ukraine, he said that Russia is prepared to end the conflict as President Putin told PM Modi in Samarkand.
“We do not want to occupy Ukraine. We only want to secure our interest in the overall security situation. Atrocities have been done by Ukraine to Russian speaking population. The referendums that have begun today are only in sync with self-determination. It is up to them on whether they want to stay in Ukraine, or not,’’ Alipov added.
He also said that Russia supports India’s full membership in UNSC.