New Delhi: The External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday reaffirmed defense and trade cooperation with Russia and said that many Western countries used to supply arms to Pakistan and not India, adding that the trend has changed in the past decade.
"In terms of inventory, yes, because many Western countries have long preferred to supply Pakistan and not India. But that has changed in the past 10 or 15 years with the USA, for example, and our new purchases have diversified with the USA, Russia, France and Israel as the main suppliers," he said.
Jaishankar, who was in Germany's Munich for the Munich Security Conference, was speaking to Handelsblatt, a leading German economic daily, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Tuesday.
Commenting on Indo-Russia ties, Jaishankar said, “One conducts a relationship based on their past experiences. If I look at the history of India post-independence, Russia has never hurt our interests. The relations of powers like Europe, the US, China, and Japan with Russia, have all seen ups and downs. We have had a stable and always very friendly relationship with Russia. And our relationship with Russia today is based on this experience. For others, things were different, and conflicts may have shaped the relationship. We, on the other hand, had a politically and militarily much more difficult relationship with China, for example”.
When asked during the interview if the differences in relations with Russia put a strain on India-Europe relations, Jaishankar said, “Both sides have communicated their positions clearly and have not emphasized their differences. But yes, there are differences. You mentioned the energy issue".
"When the fighting started in Ukraine, Europe shifted a large part of its energy procurement to the Middle East - until then the main supplier for India and other countries. What should we have done? In many cases, our Middle East suppliers gave priority to Europe because Europe paid higher prices. Either we would have had no energy because everything would have gone to them. Or we would have ended up paying a lot more because you were paying more. And in a certain way, we stabilized the energy market that way", he added.
If no one had bought the crude oil from Russia and everyone had bought the crude oil from the other countries, prices on the energy market would have shot up even further. Global inflation would have been much higher - and that would have been a huge political issue in lower-income countries, he noted.
The foreign minister also noted how Europe must understand that India's view on Russia, will not be identical to what Europe thinks of Moscow. “My point is, just as I do not expect Europe to have a view of China that is identical to mine, Europe should understand that I cannot have a view of Russia that is identical to the European one. Let us accept that there are natural differences in relationships,” he remarked.
Jaishankar said, “If Europe had wanted to maximize the damage at the time, it would have had to stop all economic relations with Russia completely. But it didn't. If Europe was so convinced and the principles were so important, why did it allow relations to end gently? Why were there exceptions for pipeline gas, for individual countries and so on? That's what governments do, they manage politics with an eye on the consequences for their people”.
He further expressed concern over the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and said “We are deeply convinced, and are publicly committed to bringing the conflict to an end. Everyone is suffering from this conflict. I don't know exactly how it will end, we're not deep enough into the process to know”.
He said that India is working with the EU in the Council for Trade and Technology, which deals with the important issue of strategic technologies, while adding “There is also a great need in Europe for skilled workers in this area. We have therefore concluded mobility agreements with Germany, Portugal, France and some others. We consider relations with Europe to be one of our most important relationships”.
“When we talk about a multipolar world, there is no question for us that Europe is a pole and, as a pole, must be involved not only in economic but also in political and strategic issues. One of our recent successes is that we have reached an agreement to build a connectivity corridor from India to Europe through the Middle East”.
In response to a question on India trying to buy more weapons from Germany and if there is a change in German policy, Jaishankar pointed out that Germany has long been cautious when it comes to security and defense.
“In contrast, we have had robust cooperation with France for a long time and to a more limited extent with Spain and Italy. But I have seen a development in Germany's attitude in recent years; my interlocutors now understand that you can't completely exclude one part of a relationship. It is developing - and that is good for both sides”, he said.
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