New Delhi: Russia is a beneficiary of the ongoing conflict in West Asia as it will be able to increase its exports of oil to countries, and thus be able to continue to fund its war with Ukraine, which is “very unfortunate”, said Michał Baranowski, Polish Deputy Minister for Economic Development.
In an exclusive interview with ThePrint Friday, Baranowski highlighted that Russia’s gains from as the war in West Asia would be “not good” for the stability and security of Europe or Ukraine.
Baranowski said that until war broke out in West Asia, the biggest challenge European countries were looking to manage was China and its overcapacity in manufacturing and its non-marketing practices.
“You ask whether they (Russia) will benefit. Well, it’s hard to see how they wouldn’t in a moment when the prices are rising and demand is rising on top of that. That’s very unfortunate,” he said.
“That aspect is certainly not good for Ukraine, for the stability and security in Europe. And again, that speaks to the point, to the first point we talked about, the need to focus on shortening the conflict, shorten the war, and to find alternative sources of oil for India and for others.”
The conflict in West Asia comes as an additional shock to Europe that has been facing multiple challenging situations, including the war in Ukraine, which has ground on for four years. Oil prices have seen a spike following the start of the ongoing conflict between the US, Israel and Iran on 28 February.
Baranowski was in India for a two-day visit and spoke to ThePrint on the margins of the Raisina Dialogue organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
The US Thursday gave India a limited 30-day waiver to purchase Russian oil stranded at sea, as a means to stabilise the global energy market and prevent inflationary pressures. However, the US and European Union (EU) have urged India to curtail its purchases of Russian crude, which touched $56 billion in the 2024-25 financial year.
Following sanctions imposed by the US on Russian oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil last October, along with facing “penalty tariffs” of 25% imposed by US President Donald Trump, India started cutting down its purchases of Russian oil.
However, if India is able to increase its oil purchases from Russia, Baranowski pointed out, then Moscow will gain funds that it could use to continue its war with Ukraine.
“And I do hope that other alternatives can come online quickly because the oil funds that Russia collects from all its exports, including to India, are funnelled directly to kill civilians in Ukraine. This is unfortunately just true. This is how they finance their war machine,” said the Polish official.
For Poland, the West Asian conflict comes at a time where it is not just dealing with Russia at its borders, but also an unpredictable US that has impacted the overall security and economic architecture of the transatlantic partnership.
“The biggest challenge actually comes, the way I look at it, comes in Europe from China’s overcapacity and not fair market practices. So that’s where, before the war started, what I spent a lot of time when we talk about how we maintain European, both social model and economic competitiveness, was to deal with, on one hand, yes, unpredictability of US as a trading partner, but on the other hand, very much as China’s overcapacity and non-market practices,” said Baranowski.
The EU has condemned Iran’s expansion of the war, with Tehran’s retaliation taking aim at nearly half a dozen countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
The conflict began after the US and Israel launched strikes at Tehran on 28 February and killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and members of his family.
Also Read: ‘India is doing right, pursuing terrorists & hitting them,’ says Polish envoy Świtalski
‘Defence & security areas of cooperation’
Baranowski was upbeat over the future of ties between India and Poland, highlighting that a business delegation from the European nation is expected to travel to the South Asian nation later this year.
One of the key pillars of the business delegation and future economic cooperation between the two countries will be the co-production and co-development of military platforms, Baranowski told ThePrint.
“So, I’m here on a preparatory mission, and we’ll be coming back in the coming months with a big business delegation to connect our businesses and… basically make our relationship more robust. One of the key sectors where we are going to grow is security and defence, another one is dual use, third one is space,” said Baranowski.
“The truth is that we have already provided key capabilities to India, especially in the drone domain, that have been successfully used on the battlefields. We are moving more in a direction of partnership and co-production in India, that’s what’s good for India, this is good for us, but that, of course, works with the trust that we have for each other.”
India and Poland have a trading relationship in goods worth roughly $7 billion, with plans to expand the economic engagement in the next few years. The India-EU FTA, Baranowski pointed out, will be important as a framework for promoting closer economic cooperation, but the focus must now be on building “substance” bilaterally between New Delhi and Warsaw.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)