Indian PM rejects Western calls to curtail Iran oil imports
February 10, 2012 - 14:0
TEHRAN - India resists pressure from the U.S. and the EU to curtail its trade with Iran, insisting that diplomacy is the best way to deal with Iran’s nuclear issue, according to the Washington Post.
The U.S. and its Western allies want India to curtail oil imports from Iran.
Iran is India's second-largest crude oil supplier after Saudi Arabia.
After a meeting with the EU president Herman Van Rompuy in New Delhi on Friday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters that he believes the nuclear issue "can be and should be resolved by giving maximum scope to diplomacy."
According to CNN, India actually increased its import of Iranian crude last month.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Thursday that “we are working with countries around the world, including India, that maintain strong oil relationships with Iran, encouraging all of them to reduce their dependence on Iranian crude.”
But India imports seventy percent of the oil it uses – fourteen percent of it from Iran.
The New York Times, in an article posted on its website on February 11, said India’s determination to continue buying Iranian oil has frustrated officials in Washington at a time when the forward momentum in the United States-India relationship has slowed, with differences over issues including civil nuclear cooperation, trade protectionism and military sales.
The situation was exacerbated this week by news reports that India had become Iran’s top oil customer, while an Indian official announced plans to send a trade delegation to Tehran.