NEW DELHI: Ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit for the India-Russia annual summit, Moscow has backed oil trade with India saying sanctions against Russian companies will cause only an insignificant dip in India’s imports from Russia.Briefing the media, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said both sides were working to find ways to not allow volume of trade to fall, adding Russia has deep experience of performing under a regime of illegal sanctions through technologies at its disposal.“There can be, for a very brief time, insignificant drops in volume of oil trade, but we consider those sanctions to be illegal from the point of view of international law,” said Peskov, who also stressed the need for India and Russia to make bilateral trade immune to pressure from third countries.The Modi-Putin summit will take place against the backdrop of pressure applied by the US and EU on India to review its energy ties with Russia. The US has slapped an additional 25% tariff on India for purchasing oil from Russia.“We do not accept these limitations, and we are doing our best to ensure that we continue our trade and that our purchasers enjoy guaranteed supplies of oil and oil products. We are managing that quite successfully,” he added. Peskov said the bilateral relationship rests on historical background of mutual understanding. “And mutual vision of global affairs & a system of global affairs based on international law, rule of law and ability to take into account each other’s interests,” he added.While Russia is looking at $100 billion trade with India by 2030, he said, Moscow is fully aware of New Delhi’s concerns about the massive trade deficit and is working with it to fix “the problem”.Peskov said the tie must be free of any influence from third countries that are trying to create obstacles for India-Russia trade partnership.
