NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister, Dr S Jaishankar, has said that India is not a war profiteer. He said this during a media interaction with an Austrian newspaper, Der Standard.
"I vehemently reject - politically and also mathematically - that India is a war profiteer. Oil prices have doubled as a result of the Ukraine war. In such a situation, if you get a better price than other countries, you still pay much more than before. The oil market is also driven up by sanctions against Iran or what is happening in Venezuela. In such a situation, it makes diplomatic and economic sense to look around the market for the best deal. Would Europe pay more if it didn’t have to?," questioned Dr Jaishankar in response to the query.
Europe imported about $120 billion worth of energy from Russia after the war broke out. That is six times as much as India bought.
In response to why India didn’t support UN legislation against Russia, Jaishankar said, "What happened in Ukraine is closer to Europe. Europe has a different history with Russia than India. We also have different interests in Ukraine than you do. Almost all states will say that they support the principles of the UN Charter. But look at the world of the last 75 years. Have all UN members really always followed the UN Charter and never sent troops to another country?"
"Each state judges events according to its location, interests and history. There are also incidents in Asia, where countries in Europe or Latin America do not feel the need to take a position. If you always immediately point out what is going wrong elsewhere, you want to distract. Then you can forget about principles right away," he added.
On the G7 decision to cap the oil price in Russia, the EAM said that it was a Western decision without consultations with India.
"Every state has the right to make decisions. But we will never automatically sign what others have cooked up," he added.