EU expected to cut oil imports from Russia by 90% by end of 2022

|HT|

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar leaves for eastern and central Europe on Wednesday night for assessment of Ukraine war on ground and its fall-out in the region as European Union after much vacillation has partially banned Russian oil imports. The EU is expected to cut oil imports from Russia by 90 per cent by the end of 2022. It is learnt that EAM Jaishankar will be visiting Bratislava in Slovakia and Prague in the Czech Republic, where he served as Indian ambassador two decades ago, among other countries in the region to thank East and Central Europe countries for Operation Ganga and have a firsthand assessment of the fall-out of the Ukraine war. Under Operation Ganga, the Modi government evacuated more than 23,000 Indian nationals from war torn Ukraine in February-March this year.

The European visit comes after Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto met EAM Jaishankar in the Capital on May 27 and shared a frank discussion on the prolonged Ukraine war and its “knock on effects” in different domains. It was the Hungarian FM who conveyed the need for India to remain constantly engaged with East and Central European countries as well as the European Union.

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