One after the next, the entreaties have streamed into India. Buying Russian oil, President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is not in your country’s interest. Undermining sanctions, a US official starkly warned, could bring “consequences”. Taking a harder line on Russia, a parade of American and European emissaries argued, is a global imperative.
But for India, the decision to hold tight to its neutrality on Russia’s war in Ukraine is no longer just about keeping its options open in a world with multiple centres of power. It has evolved into a lucrative case of economic opportunism: Russian oil is just too good a deal to pass up.
India’s purchases of Russian crude have soared since the conflict’s start, rising from nothing in December and January to about 300,000 barrels a day in March and 700,000 a day in April.
