New Delhi: Argentina’s Ambassador to India Mariano A. Caucino has termed India’s strategy to diversify its energy imports amid global disruptions caused by the West Asia conflict as a “very wise” move, adding that Argentina could emerge as a key partner in supplying energy resources to the country.
Speaking to ANI on Wednesday, Caucino said India has been expanding its network of energy suppliers, and Argentina has the potential to contribute to that effort as bilateral cooperation grows.
“I think the Indian government has been working in this strategy of diversifying the natural resources and the provision of energy in the last years. And I think that’s very positive, it’s very wise from your side,” he said.
The envoy noted that India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been pursuing a policy of securing energy supplies from a wide range of countries.
“And I think a couple of days ago, the Prime Minister even in the Parliament, he said that you are developing a strategy in order to get provision of energy from, I think, more than 40 countries,” he said.
Caucino said Argentina could play a growing role in India’s energy security as cooperation between the two countries expands beyond agriculture and minerals to the energy sector. “Argentina can be, of course, one of them. It’s already working in a starting cooperation in this field,” he said.
Referring to reports of rising Indian energy imports from Argentina, he said the South American country has significant capacity to supply global markets due to its large territory and relatively small population.
“Argentina is the eighth largest country in the world, India is the seventh, but at the same time, we have a relatively small population–we are only less than 50 million. So the domestic consumption of food and energy is relatively small, and in that sense, it’s a country that can provide to India and other Asian countries big provision in this sense, and we hope we are in the start of a cooperation in the time,” he said.
According to the ambassador, this allows Argentina to export large quantities of resources such as food, minerals and potentially energy to growing markets like India and other Asian economies.
On the broader geopolitical situation, the envoy described the ongoing hostilities in the Middle East as part of a complex set of overlapping conflicts rather than a single confrontation. He said the Argentine government has expressed support for the United States and Israel while also hoping that diplomatic efforts will lead to a resolution that ensures regional stability.
“We hope that some sort of agreement or situation might be achieved for the good of the people there, for the good of the region and the stability of the region that is so important in the world,” he said.
Caucino also noted that while Argentina has so far avoided major energy disruptions due to domestic reforms aimed at achieving energy sustainability, the interconnected nature of the global economy means that prolonged instability could eventually affect countries worldwide. “The world today is too interconnected, so we require stability for countries to achieve their national goals,” he added.
Earlier, during his address in the Rajya Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India has sufficient crude oil reserves and robust arrangements for continuous supply amid the ongoing West Asia conflict. He highlighted the expansion of strategic petroleum reserves and increased refining capacity, as global trade through the Strait of Hormuz faces disruptions.
Prime Minister said that India has expanded its energy import sources from 27 to 41 countries over the past decade and is working to reduce dependence on any single fuel, while accelerating domestic gas distribution, including piped natural gas and LPG, across the country. “…Any crisis tests both our courage and our efforts. To ensure that the country can face such challenges effectively, continuous decisions have been made over the past 11 years. The diversification of energy imports is part of these efforts. Earlier, for energy needs such as crude oil, LNG, and LPG, imports were sourced from 27 countries. Today, India imports energy from 41 countries,” he said.
“Our government is making efforts to ensure that we do not have excessive dependence on any one source of fuel. The government is also focusing on PNG, along with LPG, in the domestic gas supply. In the last decade, unprecedented work has been done on PNG connections in the country. In recent days, this work has been further accelerated,” he said.
(With inputs from ANI)
