Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Aug 14: Imran Khan, former prime minister of Pakistan, has once again praised India for its independent foreign policy while slammed the West for criticising India for purchasing Russian oil.
Speaking to a sizable crowd in Lahore, Imran Khan played a video clip of Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar from the Bratislava Forum and praised him for resisting US pressure to purchase cheap oil from Russia.
“If India which got independence at the same time as Pakistan and if New Delhi can take a firm stand and make their foreign policy as per the need of its people then who are they (Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif government) who are towing the line,” Imran Khan said at the gathering.
Additionally, he criticised the Shehbaz Sharif administration for caving in to US pressure to stop purchasing Russian oil.
“We had spoken to Russia about buying cheaper oil but this government has no courage to say no to US pressure. Fuel prices are skyrocketing, people are below the poverty line. I am against this slavery.”
When Jaishankar was featured in the Lahore Jalsa video, he was responding to a query about India’s purchase of Russian oil on June 3 by asking, “Is purchasing Russian gas not funding the war?”
At the GLOBSEC 2022 Bratislava Forum, which was held in Slovakia and covered the subject of “Taking Friendship to the Next Level: Allies in the Indo-Pacific Region,” Jaishankar made these comments.
