Expressing confidence in regards to the central authorities’s ‘Viksit Bharat’ (developed India) ambition, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s management. The Union Minister, serving as Petroleum and Pure Fuel Minister beneath since 2021, took to microblogging web site X (previously Twitter) to share components of his interview to English journalist Stephen Sackur for BBC programme HARDtalk.
Puri mentioned he had first appeared on BBC HARDtalk in 2002 as India’s Deputy Excessive Commissioner to the UK for a pointed dialogue on cross border terrorism with Tim Sebastian.
I had first appeared on BBC HARDtalk in 2002 as India’s Dy Excessive Commissioner to the UK for a pointed dialogue on cross border terrorism with Tim Sebastian in what was then thought to be a rigorously researched program.
Greater than twenty years later, I had an attention-grabbing… pic.twitter.com/YD3ACDm0dn— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) February 7, 2025
Responding to a query on whether or not India’s stance on Russian oil makes it geopolitically susceptible, Puri advised Sackur: “The place the IEA is true is that 25 per cent of the entire demand improve within the subsequent twenty years will come from India… However immediately there’s extra oil available in the market than there are takers.”
Russia’s share of India’s complete oil imports, which stood at 38 per cent, is lowering, mentioned Puri. In November, India’s import of Russian oil hit its lowest since since June 2022, in response to the Centre for Analysis on Vitality and Clear Air (CREA), a European think-tank. Until then, Russia was India’s high oil provider, adopted by Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
India grew to become the second largest purchaser of Russian crude oil since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, primarily due to the supply of Russian oil at a reduction to different globally traded provides.
“What the US advised us and plenty of others is that they wished us to purchase as a lot oil from Russia as we like so long as we purchased it at an inexpensive value… That was music to my ears,” mentioned Puri.
His remarks resonate with the Modi authorities’s dedication in direction of inexpensive and clear vitality for all residents.
The Modi administration’s stance has been a subject of curiosity throughout overseas media.
The oil minister described the dialog as “attention-grabbing” and spanning a spread of subjects, together with “India’s awe inspiring journey” beneath PM Modi, the space the nation’s vitality sector has travelled, its give attention to local weather objectives, and “our agency and assured march into a wonderful future”.
In January, Puri mentioned that India would proceed shopping for crude oil from Russia if it was accessible at a reduction, explaining the Modi authorities’s dedication to purchasing essentially the most economically-priced crude oil.
