US Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday called India an “awesome ally” of the US and added that it wants to expand energy trade and cooperation including that in natural gas and coal, nuclear, and clean cooking fuels, where New Delhi has been a “star”.
Wright, while responding to a query by news agency PTI, described India as a fast growing economy, and “a truly dynamic society that of course has rapidly growing energy demand because people are increasing their prosperity, their opportunities”.
“I’m a huge fan of India. We love India. We look forward to more energy trade, more interactions back and forth with India,” he said.
Wright addressed a press conference organised at the New York Foreign Press Centre. He was responding to the question by PTI on Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s remarks that New Delhi expects to increase its trade with Washington on energy products in the years to come, and India’s energy security goals will have a high element of US involvement.
Wright was asked how he sees collaboration between India and the US in the field of energy against the backdrop of the additional 25 per cent tariffs imposed by the US on Indian purchase of Russian oil.
He said, “And then India is caught up in the middle of another issue,” adding that US President Donald Trump’s greatest passion is peace in the world.
“When I talk to him, it does not matter what the topic is; peace comes up. How can we use our tools and leverage to drive peace? The Russian war in Ukraine, of course, is brutal. We all want to see it come to an end,” he said.
Wright noted that the sanctioned Russian oil today goes to China, India, and Turkiye, and claimed that it helps Russia fund the war.
“And that’s the friction. The friction is on that issue. We want to bring that war to the end. I believe the Indians want to bring that war to an end,” he said.
“And we want to expand our energy cooperation with India in natural gas and coal, in nuclear, in clean cooking fuels, liquid petroleum gas, India has been a star in that area. So we want nothing more than more trade energy cooperation with India,” he said.
India has been maintaining that its energy procurement is driven by national interest and market dynamics. India turned to purchasing Russian oil sold at a discount after Western countries imposed sanctions on Moscow and shunned its supplies over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
(With PTI Inputs)
