Asia's third-largest economy continues to expand its close economic ties with Russia.

While India is about to buy oil from the Russians at cheap prices, the Indians want to expand their exports to Russia of things like medicine and telecommunications equipment.

Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) had already said with regard to western sanctions against Russia: “Of course there are countries, China, India, South America, Africa, which have not joined the sanctions.

And for these then the foreign exchange are currencies that can be used.”

Christopher Hein

Business correspondent for South Asia/Pacific based in Singapore.

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In New Delhi, foreign ministers are now hand in hand.

On Saturday, India will sign a free trade agreement with Australia after ten years of negotiations.

Canberra hopes to increase its exports to India to AUD 45 billion by 2035, making India its third largest trading partner.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had previously traveled to Delhi on his way back from Beijing.

Despite pressure from numerous states, India is avoiding condemning Russia for its war of aggression.

Lavrov commended that India sees "the totality of the facts" and does not judge "unilaterally".

India imports more than 80 percent of its energy needs

His Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar defended himself against the criticism of the oil purchases in Russia and spoke of a "campaign on this issue".

Jaishankar elaborated: “I just read that Europe bought 15 percent more oil and gas from Russia in March than in the previous month.

If you look at the biggest buyers, you'll find them mostly in Europe.

We get the majority of our deliveries from the Middle East, 8 percent from America and so far less than one percent from Russia.” Earlier in New Delhi, British Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss, in the presence of Jaishankar, described Russia as “the number one” threat of the world order and pushed for further sanctions.

India, of course, remains unimpressed by such requests.

Because Russia – one of its most important arms suppliers – is now offering significant discounts: Russia is said to have offered India a discount of 35 dollars per barrel of oil (159 liters) on the pre-war price.

Since prices have increased since then, the discount is around $45 from today's price.

Among other things, the price reduction is intended to compensate for the extremely high transport rates.

Both sides are considering shipping the oil supplies from Vladivostok via Asia because the route via the Baltic Sea is currently too risky.

Ships needed about 20 days for the longer route, it said.

The purchases are to be made in exchange of rupees for rubles via the Russian payment system SPFS between Rosnef t and Indian Oil Corp.

In 2020, Russia exported $5.3 billion worth of goods to India, an average increase of 8.7 percent over the past quarter-century.

Meanwhile, India also needs more sunflower oil from the Russians because its traditional supplier, Ukraine, has lost its supply due to the Russian attack.

In comparison, Indian exports increased by 4.1 percent annually to 2.9 billion dollars.

Export goods are medicines, transmitters and tea.

Trade Minister Piyush Goyal warns that these exports could be affected by the war in Ukraine.

India imports more than 80 percent of its energy needs.

The pressure is also increasing because Indians are not only consuming more and more energy, but are falling far short of their promises for the use of renewable energies.

According to an estimate by analysts from Bloomberg, the subcontinent had 153 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity.

In 2030, the value should have increased to a capacity of 500 gigawatts.

The Indians are said to be around 35 percent behind their plan.