US Will Keep Speaking about Russian Aggression; India Helped Retain Oil Price Cap: Garcetti to News18

India’s purchases of crude oil from Russia in the thick of the conflict in Ukraine have been seen as a sore point with Western nations. However, US ambassador Eric Garcetti told CNN-News18 in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that India has actually helped maintain the oil price cap. He also underscored that the human impact of the war cannot be overlooked and a country like India knows this best.

“We won’t stop speaking out about the unproven war of aggression by Russia against Ukraine… and I think when I talk to my Indian friends, sovereignty on borders matters a lot in this country, and they understand why the United States believes that rule of law, that central tenet of international relations has to be respected and in some cases even fought for,” said Garcetti. “I was in Ukraine in February and it’s not just about power politics, this is about people, this is about the senior pensioner who has a missile ripping through her apartment with no strategic value whatsoever… The parent who separated from her children living in another country with the family she has never met… We can’t forget the human impact and a country like India that has experienced war, I think, knows that and feels that.”

He added that India and the US cannot stop the momentum in their relationship because of issues on which they do not fully agree. “We know that we can continue doing things together even where, as all good friends do, we don’t agree one hundred per cent all the time. But I think India recognises how important that sovereignty issue is…How important borders and respecting them are, and we’ll continue to say you don’t have to be involved in this war to feel its impact,” he said.

The conflict is affecting the global economy and India has suffered too because of what’s going on, Garcetti added.

Talking about India’s oil imports from Russia, the ambassador said, “Our position is that India has helped us actually keep that price cap that was essential tenet…It wasn’t a ban on this oil but a price cap, and so India’s participation is actually fulfilling that goal for us…Were we to see that it goes higher or something else, we would have to revisit that, but right now it’s in line with how the alliance has come together…We understand oil is an international good and that prices affect all of us but at the same time, whether it is diamonds or technology, other places where we want to be sure that there is a price for aggression…We are gonna continue to go very aggressively after that and hopefully bring like-minded people with us,” Garcetti told CNN-News18.

Russia’s share in India’s crude oil imports went up from 0.2% of all oil imported in the year up to March 31, 2022, to 22% in October 2022, and further escalating to 36% in April 2023, according to data by energy cargo tracker Vortexa.

The G7 countries imposed a price cap of $60 per barrel on Russian oil in December 2022.