'West trying to dictate India': Kanwal Sibal slams NATO chief; highlights US, EU's hypocrisy on Russian oil imports

Former Foreign Secretary of India Kanwal Sibal on Wednesday slammed NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte for his take on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. Sibal said in a post on X (previously Twitter) that Rutte wants India to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the conflict.

Sibal emphasised that the war is a European conflict involving Russia and the transatlantic alliance. He further highlighted the West's hypocrisy vis-a-vis imports from Russia. 

"NATO countries buy oil, gas, fertilisers, metals from Russia much more than India's oil purchases from Russia purely on a commercially advantageous basis. Before the Ukraine conflict, India was buying hardly any oil from Russia as it was commercially not economical," he wrote.

Sibal added that there is no politics involved in India's purchases of lower-priced, discounted Russian oil. He further said that with this statement, the West is trying to dictate to India on its sovereign decision to continue Russian oil imports.

"Apart from the hypocrisy of this, the West is trying to dictate to us on our sovereign decisions. Mr Rutte, as NATO Secretary General, should not implicitly seek to extend NATO’s remit to India by pronouncing on our trade choices. But then he is Daddy’s boy," the former Indian Ambassador to Russia said. 

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in an interview that Western countries should urge India to use its close relationship with Russia to help stop the war in Ukraine. He said India should ask Russia to end the conflict or face extra sanctions, a tactic he says the US has already used.

"I think putting pressure on the ones having that close relationship with Russia like India and therefore telling Delhi 'if you are serious, if you really want to end this war, you have to call Moscow and if you don't, we will impose secondary sanctions on you.' That's what the Americans did," Rutte said in an interview with Sky News' Yalda Hakim. 

When asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal equation with Putin, Rutte said: "If we would be in a position like that, we would do the same to at least air some confidence that we are still playing ball etc."