Kerry embarrasses India!
26 Jun 2013 5:21 AM IST
In a major embarrassment to the UPA government, the US Secretary of State John Kerry maintained during his three-day visit that India’s cuts on Iran’s oil imports is for the betterment of India as it would reduce dependency on Iran. Kerry left for US in the afternoon on Tuesday.
External affairs minister Salman Khurshid in May this year had visited Iran and several ways to increase commercial links with sanctions-hit Iran to reduce huge bilateral trade imbalance between India and Iran were discussed. In such circumstances, reiteration of sanctions orchestrated by US on an official visit to India has irked a few within the external affairs ministry itself.
Kerry, who addressed a joint press conference with Khurshid on Monday after the fourth India-US Strategic Dialogue, said that the US sees cuts in India’s Iran oil imports as ‘important step’, which would reduce its dependency on Iranian oil. ‘We are appreciative that India has worked hard to reduce its dependency on Iranian oil and that has been an important step and India has been very cooperative in communicating with Iran and standing up publicly and holding them accountable for non-proliferation requirements,’ he said.
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