EAM S Jaishankar's ‘Smart’ Reply On India-Russia Relations Leaves Antony Blinken Smiling In Munich

S. Jaishankar's 'smart' reply leaves Antony Blinken smiling in Munich. Amid the ongoing Munich conference, S Jaishankar was asked about India's foreign policy priorities in the backdrop of observations that it is moving away from 'non-alignment to all alignment'. While asking the question, the moderator also mentioned India's continuing procurement of crude oil from Russia. Replying to the question, Jaishankar said, 'Is that a problem, why should that be a problem? if I am smart enough to have multiple options, you should be admiring me'. EAM further added, 'We try to explain what are the different pulls and pressures that countries have it's very hard to have that unidimensional relationship'. Jaishankar's retort elicited smiles from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Baerbock, who were also part of the panel.