Amid ongoing debate about possible sanctions on India for purchasing Russian gas, the White House said New Delhi's imports of Russian energy represent only one to two per cent of its total energy imports and that energy payments by India are not sanctioned.
The White House also reiterated that it is not in India's interest to increase its import of energy from Russia and that the Biden administration is willing to work with New Delhi to help it do that. "Right now, just to give everybody the full scope of it, India's imports of Russian energy represent only one to two per cent of their total energy imports," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at her daily news conference on Monday.
Psaki was responding to questions on the visit of top Indian-American US advisor Daleep Singh to New Delhi last week. "While he [Singh] explained both the mechanisms of our sanctions and reiterated that any country or entity should be abiding by those, we also made it clear that we would be happy to be a partner in reducing their reliance or even their small percentage of reliance on that," she said.
On the same day, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters that the United States is encouraged by Indian efforts to diversify the purchase of its military or defense articles. It, however, also expressed concerns over the decision of New Delhi to purchase the S-400 missile defense system from Russia. "We have been very clear with our Indian partners about our concerns over this purchase and encouraging them, as we urge many others not to purchase Russian equipment," Kirby said.
"We remain encouraged by India's continued diversification of their defense equipment over just the past decade. So, we will continue to have that conversation with India's needs," he said in response to a question. "We have made it very clear to India about our concern on this particular purchase," he said, when asked about India's decision in this regard.
-Inputs from agencies
