WEB DESK
The United States said on Tuesday that it has no objection to Pakistan importing Russian oil.
During a regular press briefing, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price was asked to share his views about Russia as it is near to a deal to sell oil to Pakistan, which of course traditionally hasn’t been a major importer of Russian oil but has some very serious economic problems.
Ned Price answered the US has no objection to Russia and Pakistan for trade ties.
“Well, our approach to this is – has been laid out in the price cap mechanism that we worked out with other countries around the world, including the G7. And the virtue of the price cap is that it allows energy markets to continue to be resourced while depriving Moscow of the revenue it would need to continue to propagate and fuel its brutal war against Ukraine.”
America has made the point that it has very intentionally not sanctioned Russian oil. Instead, it’s now subject to the price cap.
He added the US has encouraged countries to take advantage of that, even those countries that have not formally signed on to the price cap, so that they can acquire oil in some cases at a steep discount from what they would otherwise acquire from, in this case, Russia.
“We have been very clear that now is not the time to increase economic activity with Russia. But we understand the imperative of keeping global energy markets well resourced, well supplied, and the price cap, we believe, provides a mechanism to do that.”