As India awaits the United States’ decision on extending its waiver on sanctions against the import of Russian oil, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Thursday (May 14, 2026) hit out at unilateral non-United Nations’ sanctions, calling them unjustified. Delivering the national statement at the BRICS Foreign Ministers meeting chaired by India, Mr. Jaishankar called on the grouping of emerging economies to address the problem of such sanctions.
Significantly, the meeting was attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi representing two of the U.S.’s most heavily sanctioned countries.
With the latest waiver in place, import of Russian crude oil surged to 1.96 million barrels per day since the start of May till date compared to 1.57 million barrels per day during the full month in April, according to data from real-time maritime analytics provider Kpler. The surge of oil intake from Moscow in May are indicative of Indian refiners rushing to secure stable supplies from Russia as those from West Asia find themselves mired in tensions.
In fact, India’s import of Russian oil stood at 1.98 million barrels per day in March. This coincided with U.S. according a waiver on Russian oil purchases on March 12.
