The European Union’s latest proposed sanctions package on Russia includes entities based in India, potentially clouding the ratification of a trade deal the bloc signed with the South Asian nation.
Focusing on energy, crypto, and financial services and trade, including fisheries, according to European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, it would be the 21st such package targeting Russia.
The new listings cover drone manufacturing and also seek to enforce export control measures on 50 companies, “including entities based in China, Türkiye, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, UAE and India,” top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas said in a post on X.
The nature and identities of the Indian entities in the sanctions list are not clear.
Any new sanctions will have to be agreed unanimously by all 27 EU member states before being finalized. This is expected to happen by July 15.
A temporary freeze on the EU’s Russian oil cap and new curbs on the resale of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) tankers to Russia are also included in the package.
The inclusion of Indian entities in the EU sanctions package is not without precedent, although the development comes amid a push to finalize a trade deal agreed with New Delhi in January. Dubbed the “mother of all deals” by EU leaders, it was the result of tortuous negotiations which were first launched in 2007.
The sanctions proposal has elicited a sharp response from diplomatic circles, with former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal demanding that New Delhi retaliate by sanctioning EU companies doing business with Pakistan.
“These EU sanctions are illegal under international law,” Sibal said.
New Delhi has rejected unilateral sanctions that are not backed by the United Nations and questioned the legitimacy of such actions against the backdrop of EU nations’ purchase of Russian gas and LNG.
New restrictions imposed by the EU would be in addition to 81 current listings targeting what the bloc describes as Russia’s shadow fleet, military-industrial complex, human rights violators, and propagandists, ANI reported.
Last week, India reacted angrily to a statement Kallas made in Islamabad that mentioned Jammu and Kashmir. Those with “no locus standi in such matters should refrain from making any comments on them,” the Foreign Ministry said.
The EU’s attempt to punish countries that have relations with Russia comes as India has repeatedly advocated “strategic autonomy” in trade and security.
On Tuesday, Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar noted that “many Western countries are increasingly embracing the idea of strategic autonomy,” a stance India has repeatedly advocated.
New Delhi has maintained that India’s purchases of Russian oil were based on national interests, despite Western pressure and a US imposition of 25% tariffs as punishment for such buys.