Moscow [Russia], February 10 : Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov took a dig at the United States in an interview with TV BRICS and said that there are efforts to ban India and other partners from purchasing Russian oil, Sputnik reported on Monday.
The Russian Foreign Minister also spoke about several areas such as the peace talks in Alaska last year, and how Washington has set itself the objective of achieving economic domination while they use "coercive" measures like tariffs, sanctions and direct prohibitions.
Lavrov said, "They (US) tell us that the Ukraine problem should be resolved. In Anchorage, we accepted the US Proposal... The US position was important to us. By accepting their proposal, we seem to have completed the task of resolving the Ukrainian issue and moving on to a dull-scale, broad-based and mutually beneficial cooperation. So far, the reality is quite the opposite. New sanctions are imposed, a 'war' against tankers in the open sea is being waged in violation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. They are trying to ban India and our other partners from buyinbg cheap, affordable Russian energy resources (Europe has long been banned), and are forcing them to buy US LNG at exorbitant prices."
He said that the US has set itself the objective of 'achieving economic domination', adding further to it that Americans want to control the routes to leading countries to provide its energy sources to them.
Calling the measures coercive and incompatible with fair competition, Lavrov said that the use of tariffs, sanctions, direct prohibitions and forbidding some from engaging with others are the steps being taken to meet their objectives.
"We have to take all of this into account while remaining open just like India, China, Indonesia and Brazil to cooperation with all countries, including major powers such as the United States. We are in a situation where the Americans themselves are creating artificial obstacles along the way," he said.
His statement comes as Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Monday said that "national interest" would continue to guide India's energy-related decisions, underlining that the key drivers of the country's energy policy are "adequate availability, fair pricing and reliability of supply", amid reports suggesting New Delhi is cutting its oil imports from Russia.
Misri noted India is a net importer in the oil and gas sector and, as a developing economy, must remain conscious of its resource availability and the impact of import dependence on inflation.
He added that safeguarding the interests of Indian consumers remains a top priority for the government.
Earlier on Sunday, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal clarified that India's decisions on Russian oil imports are taken solely by domestic buyers and are not dictated by the recently concluded India-US interim trade agreement framework, noting that it is in the country's "strategic interest" to diversify its energy sources. Speaking to ANI, he addressed concerns over bilateral consensus on energy.
The Ministry of External Affairs has underlined that diversifying energy sourcing in line with objective market conditions and evolving international dynamics remains central to India's strategy to ensure energy security for its population of 1.4 billion.