Friendship is the
key word, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov when he met his Indian
counterpart S Jaishankar Friday. The Indian Foreign Minister in turn said, New
Delhi has “always been in favour of resolving differences and disputes through
dialogue and diplomacy.” The Russian foreign minister is on a two-day visit to
India to apparently garner support at a time Moscow is facing crippling
sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. Lavrov’s visit coincides with the visit
of UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

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At the meeting,
Lavrov said Russia was looking at a multipolar world. “You know our position
and we do not hide anything…we appreciate that India is taking this situation
in the entirety of facts and not in a one-sided way.” Lavrov’s reference is to
the Indian stance on its military operation in Ukraine. India is among few big
nations, along with China, that has explicitly denied condemning Russia for its
Ukraine adventures.

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Lavrov is also
scheduled to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to Moscow’s
foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

The centre of
conversation between Lavrov and Jaishankar was said to be about India’s procurement
of Russian oil and the direct rupee-rouble payment system. Amid a steep rise in
global oil prices, Russia is offering India oil at a heavily discounted rate.
However, India, which is Asia’s second-largest oil importer, buys less than one
percent of its oil supplies from Russia. As such, Indian refineries are
ill-equipped to process large amounts of Russian oil.

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Irrespective,
India’s relationship with Russia shows New Delhi’s keen interest in continuing
to maintain an independent equation in Moscow instead of being cowed down by the
West’s pressures.

In fact, while friendship
and diplomacy formed the tone of Jaishankar’s meeting with Lavrov, during his
meet with UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Jaishankar largely sounded terse.
Talking about why India would buy Russian oil when offered at a discount,
Jaishankar said, “I think
it’s natural for countries to go out in the market and look for what are the
good deals for their people.”

Liz Truss, who had earlier
said UK should help India end its dependence on Russian oil, said India is a
sovereign nation and she is not going to tell it what to do.