'If I'm smart enough, why is it a problem': S Jaishankar on balancing ties with US, Russia

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar backed India's move to buy Russian oil despite sanctions, saying it should not be a problem for others.

Speaking on the sidelines of the ongoing Munich security conference, Jaishankar said it's hard to have a unidimensional relationship in the contemporary world. Amid the global furore around the death of Russian activist and known Putin baiter, Alexei Navalny, in jail, Jaishankar made the remark in response to a query on how New Delhi was balancing its growing bilateral ties with Washington while continuing to trade with Moscow.

"Is that a problem, why should that be a problem? If I am smart enough to have multiple options, you should be admiring me. Is that a problem for others? I don't think so, suddenly in this case. We try to explain what are the different pulls and pressures that countries have. it's very hard to have that unidimensional relationship," Jaishankar said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Munich conference as he stood alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Baerbock, Jaishankar expanded on India's bilateral relationship balance with the US and Russia amid an escalating diplomatic standoff between the two global powers.

"Different countries and different relationships have different histories. If I want to look at the US and Germany, it is rooted. There is an alliance, nature to it. There is a certain history on which that relationship is grounded. In our case it's very different, so I don't want you to even inadvertently give the impression that we are purely unsentimentally transactional. We are not, we get along with people, we believe in things, we share things, and we agree on some things but there are time when you are located in different places have different levels of development, and different experiences all of that gets into that," Jaishankar added.

"Life is complicated, life is differentiated. and I think it's very important today. I agree with Antony which is, good partners provide choices, smart partners take some of the choices. But sometimes, there will be choices, you say I'll pass on that," he stated further.

The 60th Munich Security Conference (MSC) got underway an in-person event from February 16-18, at its traditional venue, the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich, according to an official statement.