WASHINGTON: White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that consultations with India and other allied nations on how to implement a cap on buying gas from Russia have started.

Talking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Mr Sullivan also indicated that US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may also hold direct talks on this issue.

“We have begun talks with India about how a price cap would work and what the implications would be,” he said. “And then, if necessary, it can be elevated” to the leadership level, he added.

The US media reported this week that India’s crude oil imports from Russia have jumped 50 times since Feb 24, when Moscow invaded Ukraine.

Indian refineries bought about 25 million barrels of Russian oil in May – pushing the imports from Russia to 10 per cent of the total sea-bound imports from 0.2 per cent in 2021 and early 2022.

In April, President Joe Biden told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi it was not in India’s interest to increase its imports of energy from Russia. In Washington, the White House issued a statement saying that Mr Sullivan spoke by phone with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on Monday. “Mr Sullivan reaffirmed President Biden’s commitment to a strong and enduring US-India strategic partnership based on our shared commitment to democracy,” the White House said.

“They discussed the importance of continuing close cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, promoting regional security, and renewing efforts to collaborate on global challenges, including Covid-19 and climate change,” the statement added, without mentioning the oil consultations.

But during a press gaggle aboard the US presidential plane on the way to Madrid, Spain, a reporter asked if the oil issue was also discussed during the G-7 meeting in Schloss Elmau on Monday, he said ministers of the G-7 nations have now been tasked with by their leaders to work on the specifics of how a price cap would actually work.

“One aspect of that, of course, is intensive engagement with key consuming countries. India is one of those countries. That engagement has begun,” he added. “We have begun talks with India about how a price cap would work and what the implications of it would be.”

Asked if President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Modi about this issue specifically, Mr Sullivan said: “The President did not speak with Prime Minister Modi about this yesterday, but at senior levels of the US government, we had communications with the Indians yesterday.”

Indicating that President Biden and Mr Modi may discuss the issue soon, he said: “Before it goes to leader-to-leader level, we need to work through the details with their team at basically the Cabinet level, which is where it is right now.”

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2022