USA acknowledges that it cannot dictate India on trade and oil purchases from any country
The Biden Administration of United States has now publicly acknowledged that it has no powers to dictate any matter to India, It has not even made any request or plea to India to stop or reduce its oil imports from Russia. This is according to senior American officials of Biden Government from the United States Treasury Department.
Biden has not even indirectly attempted to sanction any Indian entity for buying and refining crude oil purchased from Russia since the beginning of its war with Ukraine because USA knows that not only the Sanction will torn to pieces but it will also boomerang.
Anna Morris, Acting Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing in response to a question at a session at the Ananta Centre in the national capital not only said that they have not requested India to reduce Russian oil buying or stop trading with Russia. The question had been asked at the session which focused on the on phase two of the price cap on Russian oil imposed by the G7, the European Union, and Australia.
Morris also cleverly added that the once Russian oil is refined it is no longer Russian oil from technical perspectives. In the same event, the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy, Eric Van Nostrand, hailed India’s decision to implement price cap on Russian oil said that the decision made Russia sell oil at discounted rates to other countries, including India. This price cap is what has been decided mutually between India and Russia and has nothing to do with USA, European Union or any other Country.
The US Department of Treasury issued a statement regarding the price cap on Russian oil in February this year. “The United States is part of an international coalition of countries (the Price Cap Coalition), including the G7, the European Union, and Australia, that have agreed to prohibit the import of crude oil and petroleum products of Russian Federation origin (“Russian Oil “),” the statement said.
The price cap’s goals of these G7 countries is to limit Russia’s revenue somehow. Also through G7 countries based financial and professional services, the aim is to restrict a broad range of services related to the maritime transport of Russian oil–unless that Russian oil is bought and sold at or below the specific price caps established by the Coalition or is authorised by a license from them. This price cap policy is intended to impose a control on supply of crude oil and petroleum products to the global market while reducing the revenues Russia earns from oil.
Though now Eric has tried to claim that above mechanism was developed to help India. He said “We know that the Indian economy has much at stake in the Russian oil trade, and has much at stake from the global supply disruptions that the price cap is designed to avoid. The price cap’s goals are to limit Putin’s revenue and maintain global oil supply–essentially by creating a mechanism for India and other partners to access Russian oil at discounted prices
However both India and China made their own parameters as how to access Russian oil at discounted prices. India is even making the payments in Indian Rupees itself. The price cap’s first year was a successful one by those standards: global oil markets remained well-supplied while Russian oil traded at a significant discount to global oil.
