New Delhi: India today expressed its concern about the price cap on Russian oil proposed by the G-7 (Group of Seven Industrialised Countries). In a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said, “We have a $2,000 per capita economy. We are worried about the price of oil. The price of oil is breaking our back. This is our major concern,” a news agency reported.
Briefing the media after the meeting, Jaishankar said the two sides had a “brief discussion” on the price cap on which developing countries have deep concern.
EU countries are trying to reach an agreement on the contentious issue, on which they are also facing resistance from many member states. The Biden administration is trying to resist the G-7 countries’ insistence on implementing the CAP. Keeping the availability of Russian oil in the global market, the idea is to limit Russia’s revenue on oil sales as part of sanctions against it.
“We are working with partners to ensure that oil revenues do not fuel Ukraine’s war,” Blinken told a joint news conference.
Jaishankar is on a visit to the US for bilateral consultations with several ministers, including his counterpart Blinken. Later, he said the discussions were on political coordination and assessment of regional and global challenges.
During the bilateral talks today, the US reiterated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on the Ukraine conflict that “this is not an era of war”.
“I share with you that this year (for various reasons) the global situation has become far more challenging, especially in the Indo-Pacific,” Jaishankar said, referring to China’s position in the Indo-Pacific region.