Saran suggests India to partner Russia to meet its energy requirements

Former foreign secretary and chairman of the National Security Advisory Board Shyam Saran has suggested that India diversify its energy procurement by partnering with Russia, given that the West Asia and the North African (WANA) region are witnessing instability currently.

Speaking on a raft of issues during his inaugural lecture on the theme of Changing Asia, initiated by the Society for Policy Studies in collaboration with the India Habitat Centre here yesterday evening, Saran said, "Another foreign policy objective must be to diversify our sources of energy supplies away from WANA towards Africa, Latin America, Russia and South East Asia. Some diversification has taken place, but it has been slow and intermittent. A long term energy partnership with Russia has been pursued unsuccessfully for several years, but may have become more feasible with the likely shrinkage in Russia's markets to the West."

His suggestion of veering towards Russia, apart from countries in Africa, Latin America, Russia and South East Asia to source energy was because any unrest that happens in the WANA region would obviously have a spillover effect on oil supplies to India.