United Nations: Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says his country's relation with India is not defined by oil purchases but is a “particularly privileged strategic partnership”.

Asked at his news conference here on Saturday about US pressures on India against buying Russian oil, he said, “I can't consider them a criteria for relations between India and the Russian Federation”.

“We have strategic partnership, as we call it, for a long time, strategic partnership relations”, he said. “Now we call it a particularly privileged strategic partnership”.

India’s leaders, he said, “are perfectly capable of making these decisions for themselves and publicly”.

“We have full respect for the national interests of India, full respect for the foreign policy that (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi

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