PremiumA day after condemning the civilian killing in Ukraine, India on Wednesday said the government is working on stabilising economic transactions with Russia. India has been balancing its diplomatic ties with Moscow and the West after Ukraine's invasion.
S.Jaishankar told lawmakers in the Parliament that Russia continues to be a critical economic partner and efforts were underway to "stabilise economic transactions between India and Russia," said a Reuters report.
At present, Russia is the country's main supplier of defence hardware, however, the overall annual trade is still small compared to other countries, with approximately an average of $9 billion in the past few years with fertilisers and some soil also included.
Earlier, it was known that the Indian government is looking to establish a rupee-rouble trade system.
The Indian government has repeatedly called for an end to the violence in Ukraine, however, they have restrained various U.N. resolutions on the Russia-Ukraine war as it opts to balance out its diplomatic ties with both Kremlin and the Western countries.
India's permanent representative to the United Nations on Tuesday, in a meeting of the Security Council, said that the country condemned the killings of civilians in Ukraine's Bucha and announced an independent investigation of the incident.
Many regions of Ukraine suffered heavy losses due to the invasion of Russia since late February. However, new images of dozens of bodies lying on streets and basements of Bucha with their hands tied behind their back and faces covered with hoods, had led to new sanctions by some major countries against Russia. Many have condemned the killings of civilians in Bucha which is outside the capital, Kyiv. Not just that, many other regions around Kyiv are said to have suffered deeply.
However, Russia has denied the killing of civilians in Bucha, which has been retaken by Ukrainian soldiers recently.
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