NEW YORK: Given the outcry in the US media and among legislators over India's purchase of Russian oil, US President Joe Biden's secretary Jen Psaki has stressed that India's imports were minor and that energy payments were not subject to US sanctions.

"Right now, just to give everyone the entire extent of it," she said at a briefing in Washington on Monday, "India's imports of Russian energy constitute only 1 to 2 percent of their total energy imports."  "Just because of some of the reports," Psaki added, "energy payments are not sanctioned; that's a decision made by each individual government."

She made the remarks in response to a reporter's query about if "the administration will be putting up pressure on China and India to comply by current sanctions as part of this new push to ramp up penalties?" In contrast to India, Germany imports nearly 55 percent of its massive gas demand from Russia, as well as coal, yet it has evaded criticism and sarcastic questions.

Other European Union countries that buy Russian energy have received little criticism or demands to stop doing so immediately. Despite its neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its purchases from Mosocw, Washington has typically supported New Delhi due to its crucial role in the Biden administration's Indo-Pacific policy and attempts to curb China's influence.

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