India, China to be at the centre of Russia’s new energy policy
NEW DELHI, March 3: Russia will no longer rely on the West for its energy trade and its new energy policy will be oriented towards more reliable partners like India and China, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Delhi on Friday.
“We would not rely anymore on any partners in the West. We would not allow them to blow the pipelines again,” said Lavrov and referred to Pulitzer-award-winning journalist Seymour Hersh’s report that suggested the US was responsible for damaging the Nordstream pipelines in September last year. The White House had denied the reports terming them false.
Lavrov said that during the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Delhi on March 2, the foreign ministers of the west kept shouting Russia must stop the war.“However, Biden and Blinken have repeatedly been saying that Russia must be defeated and suffer strategically. The entire G20 has only been talking about Ukraine, whereas there has been no reference on Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya” Lavrov said, adding that it’s a shame that they are only following what the US decides.
“If it is existential for them, it is existential for us,” he said, adding that it’s not all black and white and even the UNSC doesn’t let members voice their own opinion. He also alleged that the West was following a policy of blackmail and diktat with developing countries in order to force them to condemn Russia and even threatening sanctions.
Regarding negotiating with Zelenskyy to end the conflict, Lavrov said the Ukrainian President had said that he would not negotiate till Putin was the Russian President. Lavrov said that Russia’s relations with India and China were good.
“India is a specially privileged strategic partner. Our relations with China have strengthened only some years back. We are interested in India and Russia to be friends. Before the formation of BRICS, a grouping called RIC (Russia India China) was formed and we met under that grouping where trade, technology and economy was discussed,” Lavrov added.
Lavrov said the countries in Europe were not affected by what Russia was doing in Ukraine, but by the reaction of the West on Moscow’s actions in the region after ample warnings.“They do not remember when Serbia was bombed. Joe Biden, a senator at that time, bragged that he promoted that approach. When Iraq was ruined as a state, a few years later Tony Blair said it was a mistake. You think the United States has the right to declare a threat just like they did to other countries, but no one questions it for that,” the minister added.
