Pak Sahafat – The EU-India meeting, which was being held in Brussels on the subject of new technologies, failed due to a dispute over Russia’s energy sanctions.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency’s report from Politico, the EU-India summit on Tuesday was supposed to be about technology and trade, but the ministers’ first meeting was clearly affected by Western sanctions against Russia, which allow countries like India to buy cheap oil refine it and then return to Europe for big profit.
In a press conference in Brussels, Indian Foreign Minister Subranyam Jaishenkar rejected criticism that his country is helping Moscow to circumvent sanctions.
The senior diplomat of New Delhi said that such claims are baseless, and the European Union rules dictate that if Russian crude oil is fundamentally changed, it will no longer be considered as a Russian product.
EU foreign policy Chief Josep Borrell told the Financial Times in his previous comments that Brussels should act to punish third countries that refine Russian oil and sell its products to the EU.
He said: If the diesel or gasoline imported from India to Europe is produced with Russian oil, it is definitely circumventing the sanctions and the member states must take measures.
The dispute arose at what was supposed to be an upbeat summit, as Brussels hosted the first meeting of the new EU-India Trade and Technology Council, designed to boost cooperation between the world’s two largest democracies.
The meetings will be held during a week of tense diplomacy among the leaders, culminating in the G7 summit in Japan, where Russian sanctions will be at the top of the agenda.
Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said: EU-India relations have the potential to be the defining partnership of the 21st century. Meanwhile, the European Union is seeking closer ties with India after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and has also stalled on resuming talks with India on a free trade agreement.
However, data from the Kepler shipping platform show that the South Asian nation has become one of the biggest winners of the energy sanctions imposed by the West on Russia in the wake of the Ukraine war. No longer competing for supplies with Europe and other major economies, India has saved about $89 per ton of crude oil, according to the bank’s analysis. As a result, since Moscow’s full-scale offensive began, Russian crude oil imports from India have increased from about 1 million barrels per month to more than 63 million barrels in April.
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At the same time, lucrative exports of refined petroleum products to the European Union have increased sharply, raising concerns that the country is selling its oil products solely with Russian refined reserves.
European diesel imports from India rose almost tenfold last month compared to the same time last year, with member states buying more than 5 million barrels, while jet fuel flows to the continent rose by more than 250 percent, totaling reached 2.49 million barrels.
In February, the European Union banned Russian refined petroleum products, building on a crude oil embargo imposed last year. However, the fight against Russian oil fuel produced by third-country refineries has become more difficult.
Oleg Ostenko, an economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told Politico in March: We have enough evidence that some international companies are buying refined products made from Russian oil and sending them to Europe.
He added: This is completely legal, but it is completely immoral. Just because it’s allowed doesn’t mean we don’t need to do something about it.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has consistently resisted pressure to impose sanctions on Russia or reduce close economic ties with the Kremlin. Arguing that his country has no commitment to take sides in this conflict, he emphasized last September: India is on the side of peace and will firmly remain there.
Purva Jain, a New Delhi-based analyst at the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said: India has a growing population and the country’s government has set a huge development plan that requires increasing energy resources.
When geopolitical turmoil occurs, economic opportunities arise. Finally, these decisions are due to energy security concerns.
Given that the EU is currently negotiating its 11th package of sanctions against Russia, which focuses on combating circumvention of existing economic restrictions, the sanctions debate is particularly sensitive.
It also explores that third countries will be penalized if they break sanctions rules, although India is not central to the debate, but it could pave the way for future actions against New Delhi.