NATO Sanction Threat: MEA Says Securing Energy Needs Of People Comes First

A day after NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned that countries including India, China and Brazil could be impacted by '100% secondary sanctions' if they continued to do business with Russia, India on Thursday stated that its 'overriding priority' is to secure the nation’s energy needs.

Responding to the sanction threat, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Thursday said that India's domestic needs depend on the current market scenario and geopolitical conditions, and warned the West against adopting any "double standards."

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

Rutte's remarks came during a meeting with senators in the US Congress after United States President Donald Trump threatened secondary tariffs of 100 per cent on the buyers of 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. 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.

The US president on Tuesday also said that he plans to impose over 10 percent tariffs on smaller countries, including nations in Africa and the Caribbean. “We’ll probably set one tariff for all of them,” Trump said, adding that it could be “a little over 10% tariff” on goods from at least 100 nations. 

Earlier, Rutte warned Russia's main trading partners- India, Brazil, and China- especially since the war with Ukraine began in 2022, saying they could face up to 100 per cent secondary sanctions if Russian President Vladimir Putin did not take the peace deal seriously.

"If you are the President of China, the Prime Minister of India, or the President of Brazil, and you continue to trade with Russia and buy their oil and gas, then you know: if the man in Moscow doesn't take the peace negotiations seriously, I will impose 100 per cent secondary sanctions," Rutte said.

Rutte also called on the leaders of the three nations to directly urge Putin to commit to peace talks.

"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," he said.