Russian diamonds: Govt has taken up challenge of ban on imports of Russian diamonds by EU, G7: S Jaishankar

The preliminary stage of an EU and G7 ban on imports of Russia-origin diamonds by way of third international locations got here into impact in early March, a step taken as a part of sanctions on Moscow in response to its invasion of Ukraine. “Our effort is to delay (the preliminary stage of ban), soften it, and better of all, not let this occur in any respect.

For us, this has turn into a precedence challenge, and we are going to attempt to discover out an answer in coming days,” Jaishankar stated right here. He was responding to a query on how the ban goes to harm the Surat diamond trade, which polishes 90 per cent of the world’s tough diamond.

Jaishankar stated at an interplay with younger enterprise leaders organised by the Disha Basis in Surat that the 27-member EU has imposed sanctions on imports of Russian diamonds, and G7, the group of the world’s wealthiest nations, can be getting in that route.

The international locations which have banned the imports of Russian tough diamonds by way of third international locations as a part of sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine are solely customers and their employment doesn’t rely on it, the minister famous.

“Their thought is to harm Russia. And this topic is totally completely different from blood diamonds. Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi has himself raised the difficulty with completely different leaders and despatched me to completely different international locations, together with Belgium (which at present holds the EU’s rotating presidency), to debate the difficulty with the federal government there,” Jaishankar emphasised. Sanction have been at present imposed on 1 carat diamond, and the difficulty could be resolved if there’s a ceasefire (between Russia and Ukraine), however this isn’t prone to occur any time quickly, he stated. “If the conflict continues, it can create challenges (for the Indian diamond trade). We’re holding discussions collectively and on a bilateral foundation over the difficulty. Just a few days in the past, PM Modi talked to the Belgian Prime Minister (Alexander De Croo), and our (Union Commerce) Minister Piyush Goyal goes to observe up on this within the subsequent few days,” Jaishankar knowledgeable.

The federal government’s effort is to make the EU and G7 international locations perceive that their resolution finally ends up hurting the third individual and never the goal (a reference to Russia), the minister identified.

So far as the challenges that the Surat textile trade faces from Bangladesh and Vietnam are involved, the Indian authorities’s effort to enter right into a Free Commerce Settlement with the EU will assist deal with them because the sector might be a giant beneficiary of such a enterprise pact, he famous.

In his interplay, Jaishankar confused that as a substitute of following the ‘China Plus One’ technique, coming into into the brand new provide chain being created internationally and gaining a foothold within the digital world by way of India’s repute of trustworthiness will assist the nation’s trade.

The technique encourages firms to diversify their provide chain and manufacturing actions away from China to mitigate dangers.