India has a clear message to the world: India first. Notwithstanding the unwarranted strong-worded warning thrashed out to India by Daleep Singh, US’ deputy national security adviser for international economics over the Russia-Ukraine issue, New Delhi has come out firmly on its decision to continue to purchase crude oil from Moscow.

“We explained our position very clearly. I will put my country’s interest first and energy security first. If oil is available and at a discount, why shouldn’t I buy it? I need it for my people. We have already started purchasing. The nitty-gritty is being worked out,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at a CNBC-TV 18 group function.

Interestingly, Singh and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in New Delhi around the same time.

Also read: Why sanctions on Russia may not have much impact

“What we would not like to see is a rapid acceleration of India’s imports from Russia as it relates to energy or any other exports that are currently being prohibited by the US,” Singh who is also the chief architect of the sanctions imposed against Russia after its Ukraine invasion said during his official visit to India.

His comments have surprised many as several European countries too have continued to purchase Russian oil despite the sanctions.

“With regard to the use of rubles and rupees in commercial financial transactions, I would like to recall that many years ago we began to move away from the use of Dollars and Euros in our relations with India, China and many other countries, to make more use of the national currency. Under the current circumstances, this trend will naturally increase," Singh added.

India and Russia are also looking to set up rupee-ruble payment mechanism to skirt the sanctions against Moscow. As part of the sanctions, Russian banks and companies have been disconnected from SWIFT, the international payment mechanism. With the SWIFT payment system being cut off, several countries including China have already started looking at alternative payment mechanisms bifurcating the US dollar. Analysts said that this could actually lead to increased non dollar trade in the coming months.

Amid a surge in global crude prices, India has been purchasing oil from Russia at a discounted rate, something that is expected to help New Delhi in cushioning its economy.

India is the third largest oil consumer in the world after the US and China. More than 80 per cent of its crude is imported.

While a chunk of oil is imported from the middle eastern nations such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia and UAE, in 2021, India purchased about 12 million barrels of oil from Russia which is just a little more than 2 per cent of its total imports.

But this year in March and April alone India imported 6 million barrels.

The US earlier said that while the purchase of crude oil from Russia will not violate the stringent sanctions imposed against Russia by the West, Washington warned that it may put India “on the wrong side of history.”

Also read: PM Modi offers to help bridge divide between Russia and Ukraine during talks with Lavrov

Singh even said that Russia will not come to India’s rescue in case China’s misadventure continued along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

“India stands for peace but India stands for dialogue and most importantly India stands for India – this message has gone out to the global fraternity,” Anil Trigunayat, former ambassador and Distinguished Fellow at Vivekananda International Foundation told India Narrative.

Meanwhile, Beijing based Global Times said that New Delhi’s insistence of maintaining strategic autonomy has put India in a “comfortable” situation.

Zhao Gancheng, a research fellow at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, told the Global Times that “India has won itself greater room to manoeuvre between countries of different stances with its neutral position” on the Russia-Ukraine issue.