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| Edited By: Sidhant Sibal |Source: DNA webdesk |Updated: Mar 31, 2022, 01:38 PM IST
The German National Security Advisor Jens Plötner, who was on a Delhi visit on Wednesday, hoped that " back filing" of sanctions imposed by his country against Russia will take place. West, including Germany and EU, has announced a number of sanctions against Russia since its invasion of Ukraine on 24th February.
Speaking to the media, the German NSA sitting alongside German Envoy Walter J. Lindner said, "When it comes to sanctions, only fair that we carry the brunt of costs, it's in our neighbourhood, it's in Europe", pointing, "we know that acting together on sanctions might be asking too much...we would like to see a situation where there is no back filing on the sanctions we operate and no friendly country in the world takes the step of taking economic advantage of the war".
His comments come even as many countries in Asia, including India and China, have not joined the western sanctions. In fact, Moscow has offered discounted Russian oil to India. Indian state-run oil companies are in talks to get discounted oil but even then Russia historically has been a marginal supplier of crude oil to India.
The NSA who is the Foreign and Security Policy Advisor to German chancellor Olaf Scholz explained, "we are willing to carry significant weight(of sanction) in this but others won't neutralize the burden we putting on ourselves". In Delhi, he held meetings with NSA Ajit Doval, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar and Foreign secretary Harsh Shringla in which the Russian invasion of Ukraine dominated the agenda.
On German Dependency on Russian Energy, the NSA said Berlin has been "engaged in forceful policy" of reducing our dependency from Russia and we "hope to be Independent of Russian coal in the course of this year, hope to significantly reduce dependency on Russian oil starting this year" but it will take "longer to totally renounce Russian gas". Germany gets 30% of its gas from Russia. The country also announced to halt the Nord Stream 2 Baltic sea gas pipeline in the aftermath of the Russian invasion.
Presenting his country's case, he said, "as you see we are steadily decreasing and not increasing what we are buying from Russia. This will be a suggestion we will make to our friends, that it might not be the time to do exactly the contrary to what we are all doing". After his Delhi visit, he goes to Tokyo for talks.
On talks in Delhi, NSA Plötner said, "The aim of my discussions here in Delhi is to better understand how this geopolitical specificity of India, plays into your analysis of what is going on in Ukraine. We might have different approaches, we will still come to a common conclusion, that can't go unchecked". While India has abstained at the UN on issues relating to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it has called for respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states, a long-standing policy of New Delhi.
Sources said, during the meeting with NSA Doval, he emphasized "India’s consistent approach for the peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with international law and our commitment to the UN Charter"
UK Foreign secretary Liz Truss, US Deputy NSA Daleep Singh, Dutch NSA are in Delhi today for talks while Russian Foreign minister Lavrov will hold talks in Delhi on Friday. Asked about Lavrov's visit, the German NSA said, "It can be very useful that foreign minister Lavrov has discussions here in New Delhi and I trust that our Indian friends, be it behind closed doors, also have a clear message".
He also lauded "efforts undertaken" by Turkey in Russia-Ukraine talks while on Russian removal from G20 being raised by western countries explained Berlin having a dialogue with Jakarta. Indonesia holds the G20 summit in November as the president of the grouping for this year.
