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India’s latest move to adopt a strategic autonomy as part of its foreign policy is a step in right direction and will help in strengthening relations with its Asian partners in both strategy and energy space, believe experts.
Speaking at a discussion titled ‘International Prices, Domestic Taxes and India’s Oil Problem’ organised by the Indian Women’s Press Corps, Talmiz Ahmad, former Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE, said: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s engagement with China and then with Russia and the remarks he made in Singapore, all of them indicate what somebody loosely called neo-non aligned movement. At the end of the day, we are going to pursue strategic autonomy.”
Stating that West Asia will continue to play a key role in India’s energy basket, Ahmad said that the current consignments of oil and gas from the US is more token in nature. He said, “What we got from the US was a token shipment in a certain set of circumstances to appease Donald Trump. In terms of our total purchases, it is not more than one per cent. Let us be clear that we are going to be dependent on West Asia till 2040 and there is not going to be any significant change in the additional avenues.”
Also speaking at the event, former Petroleum Secretary SC Tripathi said, “Instead of focusing on appeasing the US, the engagement with Iran, China and Russia has become crucial for our national interest.”
“With regards to Iran, we have to keep our mind open. The statement of the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is very clear when she said that we only follow sanctions levied by the United Nations. It is very reassuring,” Tripathi added.
Noting how the largest consumers and producers are all in Asia, Tripathi said, “At this point of time, China, India, Japan and Korea are the largest consumers. If they can come together and make some kind of consortium to talk with producers such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, on one hand, and Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Iraq and Iran, on another hand, we can steer things in our favour.”
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