Jaishankar says ‘oil price breaking our back’ in joint presser with Blinken

External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday expressed his concerns about the price of oil. He said, “We are a $2,000 per capital economy. The price of oil is breaking our back. This is our big concern.”

Addressing a joint presser with US secretary of state Antony Blinken, Jaishankar said there is a very deep concern among developing countries about how their energy needs are addressed.

Speaking about the Ukraine war, he said this conflict is not in anybody’s interest, adding the best way forward is to return to dialogue and diplomacy.

Blinken then reiterated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that this is not the era of war.

“I really want to emphasise on what PM Modi said. I think he captured, as well as anyone I have heard, fundamentally what this moment is about as he said, this is not an era, the time for war and we could not agree more,” Blinken said.

He also brought up the issue of the sale of F16s to Pakistan issue that Jaishankar had criticised a day ago. He said this is a sustained programme for F16s that Pakistan has long had. “These are not new, this is sustaining what they have. We’ve a responsibility and obligation to whomever we provide military equipment to, that it’s maintained and sustained.”