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INDIA has stepped up its oil diplomacy to prepare the ground to strengthen country’s energy security. During the one-week window which the government has before the election process starts, there will be a flurry of visits from countries, including Canada, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran. The common thread during talks between the Indian side and the visiting leaders will be oil & gas, energy security, space, nuclear energy and military cooperation.

Saudi Arabia’s crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin and Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will visit India in a bid to boost bilateral ties and seek investments in various sectors.

According to external affairs ministry’s spokesperson Syed akbaruddin, “Russian deputy prime minister Rogozin will arrive here On February 26 — he co-chairs the India-Russia Intergovernmental Commission (IRIGC). This is an inter-sessional meeting of IRIGC. The Indian side will be chaired by external affairs minister Salman Khurshid.”

“This will be the first high-level visit from Russia following the summit meeting between Prime minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Vladmir Putin in October last year. His talks with Indian leaders are going to focus on energy, trade and business and cooperation in space technology,” Akbaruddin added.

Progress on the decision taken during Khurshid’s last visit to Moscow to set up a joint study group for an oil pipeline from Russia to India across the former Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan will come up for review. “It’s going to be a very big idea for the next 10 years,” sources indicated. The proposed pipeline will not necessarily be part of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India project that was also being planned, though it might run parallel to it, officials said.

Updates will be exchanged over the “programme of cooperation” in oil & gas on the Yamal Peninsula in northwest Siberia. The IRIGC meeting has prepared the ground for large-scale investment deals, as a newly-formed working group on investment, which met last year, drafted a list of a dozen joint projects. It has been planned to build a joint helicopter design centre in India and look into joint production of passenger aircraft.

With both sides set to boost cooperation in nuclear energy with the negotiations for the third and fourth units of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in their final stages — new site for a nuclear power project in southern or eastern India, will be on the table for discussions.

Iranian foreign minister Zarif arrives on February 27 on a two-day visit as the Persian Gulf nation seeks to boost energy and trade ties with easing of sanctions. India pays Iran 45 Percent of the value of imports in rupee but hasn’t been able to pay for the remaining since March last year due to sanctions, thus resulting in unpaid dues of $3 billion. So far, Iran has not sought any particular amount for repayment, but it would be on the agenda of discussions with Khurshid, along with other issues bilateral and international in nature. India is among Asia’s major importers of energy and relies on Iran to meet a portion of its energy demand. Iran was the second largest supplier of India’s crude before the tightening of US-led sanctions against Tehran about two years ago.

New Delhi has significantly increased its oil imports from Iran following the recent partial suspension of sanctions on the Islamic Republic. India’s imports from Iran also more than doubled in January, surging to 412,000 barrels per day (bpd), up from 189,100 bpd in December. The figure, which is the highest since February 2012, is also 44 Percent higher compared with the same period last year.

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