"Caution Against Double Standards": India On NATO's Russia Trade Warning

The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday responded to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) chief Mark Rutte's remarks on possible sanctions over India's trade with Russia, cautioning against "double standards".

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, at the weekly media briefing in Delhi, said, "We have seen reports on the subject and are closely following the developments. Let me reiterate that securing the energy needs of our people is understandably an overriding priority for us."

Mr Jaiswal warned of double standards regarding the matter and said, "In this endeavour, we are guided by what is on offer in the markets and by prevailing global circumstances. We would particularly caution against any double standards on the matter."

VIDEO | MEA press briefing: Reacting to NATO Chief Mark Rutte's remarks, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) says, “We have seen reports on the subject and are closely following the developments. Let me reiterate that securing energy needs of our people is understandably… pic.twitter.com/RmZWHpMGE1

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 17, 2025

Mr Rutte had warned on Wednesday that countries such as Brazil, China and India could be hit very hard by secondary sanctions if they continued to do business with Russia.

He made the comment while meeting with senators in the US Congress. Earlier, US President Donald Trump had announced new weapons for Ukraine and had threatened to slap 100 per cent tariffs on any country buying Russian exports, unless there is a peace deal in 50 days.

"My encouragement to these three countries, particularly is, if you live now in Beijing, or in Delhi, or you are the president of Brazil, you might want to take a look into this, because this might hit you very hard," Rutte told reporters.

"So please make the phone call to Vladimir Putin and tell him that he has to get serious about peace talks, because otherwise this will slam back on Brazil, on India and on China in a massive way," Rutte added.

However, European and NATO members continue to be large buyers if Russian energy exports. According to to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, EU has been the largest buyer of Russian liquified natural gas and pipeline gas since 2022 and Turkey, a NATO member, has been the largest buyer of Russian oil products. The EU has proposed to phase out Russian oil and natural gas imports by 2027 and January 2028, respectively.

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri also said on Thursday that India could meet its oil requirements through "alternative sources" if the Russian supplies were hit by secondary sanctions.

"I'm not worried at all. If something happens, we'll deal with it. India has diversified the sources of supply and we have gone, I think, from about 27 countries that we used to buy from to about 40 countries now," Mr Puri said, per Reuters.