India: India’s External Affairs Minister, Dr S. Jaishankar’s response to Austrian journalist who asked him about the Indian relations with Russia amidst the Russia-Ukraine war, is going viral for all the right reasons.
Indian EAM stated, “Europe has managed to reduce its inputs while doing it in a manner which it is comfortable for Europe if it is 60,000 per capita income and they are caring about their population; I also have a population of 2000 dollars, I also need NAG, I am not in a place to pay high prices, the price of oil is doubled, So what Europe is doing is moving into the Middle East and divert its production in the Middle East into Europe and rising prices”.
Furthermore, he added that the European actions are putting pressure on all Global oil markets and on my inputs as well, So I think it is something European political leadership understand W or would like to soften the impacts on their population, so I think it is a privilege to extend to other political leaders as well.
After that, an Austrian journalist talked about the supply of weapons and military equipment and also about Moscow relations, to which Jayshanker replied that India has a relationship with Moscow, a long-term relationship with Moscow. I think it is important to look back at the relations with Moscow, it was a relationship built in a period when western democracy used to arm a military dictatorship called Pakistan and deny India defensive weapons, so we are talking about principals, so let’s talk a little bit about the history out here, how did they Indian exposure to Russia and previously to the Soviet Union get built up, because the western democracy is for whatever reason decided the natural partner in a military dictatorship.
The journalist’s last questioned: Would you consider India an ally of Russia? Jayashankar said, “We’re an Independent country; we do not define ourselves or see ourselves in alliance terms because the alliance is a western terminology. It is just not a term we use.