European nations should stop moralizing about India’s foreign policy stances, considering the West’s own ambivalence on other issues, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar has said.
The top Indian diplomat was responding to queries about New Delhi’s foreign policy vis-a-vis the Ukraine conflict and Russian oil purchases while in Finland, where he was on a state visit on Thursday.
“I buy oil based on cost and availability,” he said in response to a question on India increasing its oil purchases from Russia since 2022. “So at that point of time, much of the oil available in the market was Russian because Europeans were essentially buying oil from the Middle East, which was our traditional supplier.”
Jaishankar then went on to call out the West’s lack of moral clarity on other geopolitical questions.
“No European country has been attacked with Indian weapons. I wish I could say that for Europe weapons vis-à-vis India,” he said.
“Europe sells weapons, which are used to attack India. Not just now but for many years. We Indians have never done anything to endanger Europe. I think that’s a reasonable point,” Jaishankar elaborated.
He reiterated that New Delhi became a major buyer of Russian oil only after the US imposed sanctions on Moscow in 2022. New Delhi currently imports energy from 41 countries.
“At that time, the US specifically asked India to buy Russian oil to stabilize the oil market,” the minister said.
“Right now, if you see, after having first put tariffs on us for buying Russian oil, the US then again lifted its sanctions... Let’s not pretend there’s some great principle involved here. I don’t think making this about sanctimony is really warranted,” he said.
In 2025, the US imposed 50% tariffs on Indian imports, half of which were specifically termed a punitive levy for Russian oil purchases. Those were later removed and only reduced trade-related tariffs are currently in force.
The US also extended sanctions waivers on Russian oil purchases three times after the US and Israel attacked Iran, in order to curb soaring global energy prices.
Jaishankar said earlier this week that “many Western countries are increasingly embracing the idea of “strategic autonomy,” a stance India has repeatedly advocated.