New Delhi: Germany has “no problems” with receiving refined oil from India, German Ambassador to India Philipp Ackermann has said.
Over the past year, India has emerged as the top buyer of crude oil from Russia, which it refines and imports to the West. It has become the leading exporter of refined fuels to Europe after the EU introduced a ban on imports of such products from Russia in light of its invasion of Ukraine.
On Tuesday, however, Josep Borrell, high representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, called for a crackdown on imports of Indian-refined oil.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Borrell had said, “If diesel or gasoline is entering Europe through India and being produced with Russian oil, that is certainly a circumvention of sanctions and member states have to take measures.”
In contrast, German envoy Ackermann, during an interaction with ThePrint team in New Delhi on 8 May, had said, “As long as India respects the price cap imposed by Germany, we have no problem with refined oil products entering the country.”
He added, “We felt that the oil market should not be completely disrupted by the sanctions we were imposing on Russia. The decision to impose sanctions was a European decision. However, before the sanctions, we were one of the best clients of Russian oil and gas and if oil products are now entering Germany through other sources, we have no issue with it.”
The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) in a report last month termed India, China, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Turkey ‘laundromats’ for the West. According to it, these five countries accounted for 70 per cent of Russian crude oil exports.
The EU is the largest importer of oil products from these countries, clocking in imports of refined fuel amounting to roughly €17.7 billion. The CREA report found that imports of Russian crude oil by ‘laundromat’ countries increased by more than 140 per cent over the past year, rising to €74.8 billion, compared to the 12-month period before the invasion.
It added that the “price cap coalition countries are responsible for the vast majority of the increase in laundromat countries’ exports of oil products since the start of Russia’s invasion”.
On Tuesday, however, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar Tuesday had responded to Borrell’s remarks by asking him to refer to EU Council Regulation 833/2014. “Look at EU Council regulations, Russian crude is substantially transformed in the third country and not treated as Russian anymore,” he said during a joint press conference with EU officials.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)