New Delhi: After NATO chief Mark Rutte warned that India, Brazil and China could face secondary sanctions for buying Russian oil and other goods, India on Thursday (July 17) said that energy needs were guided by market dynamics and global conditions, while accusing critics of “double standards”.External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India had been following the developments, but stressed that “securing [the] energy needs of our people is understandably an overriding priority for us”.“In this endeavour, we are guided by what is on offer in the markets and by the prevailing global circumstances. We would particularly caution against any double standards on the matter,” he said at the weekly briefing on Thursday.India’s response came after the secretary-general of the transatlantic military alliance said on Tuesday that China, Brazil and India had to pressure Russia or risk facing US sanctions.“My encouragement to these three countries particularly is, if you live now in Beijing or in Delhi, or you are the president of Brazil, you might want to take a look into this, because this might hit you very hard,” Rutte told reporters on Tuesday after meeting with senators in the US Congress.A day earlier, he had met US President Donald Trump, who announced new weapons for Ukraine and threatened “biting” secondary tariffs of 100% on buyers of Russian exports unless a peace deal is reached within 50 days.“So please make the phone call to Vladimir Putin and tell him that he has to get serious about peace talks, because otherwise this will slam back on Brazil, on India and on China in a massive way,” Rutte said on Tuesday.Several key US senators are steering a Russia sanctions Bill that would allow Trump to impose a 500% tariff on imports from any country buying Russian uranium, gas or oil.When Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar visited Washington earlier this month, he said India’s “concerns and our interests in energy security have been made conversant” to Republican senator Lindsey Graham, the main sponsor of the Bill.Graham remains enthusiastic about the measure, calling it a “sledgehammer” to end the Ukraine war, this Sunday.Since the start of the Ukraine war, India’s imports of Russian crude have grown manifold, now accounting for nearly 40% of India’s oil imports.India is currently Russia’s second-largest oil buyer after China.Indian officials have often argued that India’s purchase of Russian crude has helped stabilise global prices. They also point out that Europe continues to import energy from Russia.According to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a European think tank, Europe paid 21.9 billion euros for Russian fossil fuel imports in the third year of the Russian invasion.It said that Western countries that imposed sanctions on Russia imported 18 billion euros of oil products from six refineries in India and Turkey, with the Jamnagar refinery handling the largest volume. Of this, nine billion euros worth of products were refined from Russian crude.Meanwhile, oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday expressed confidence that India could meet its energy needs from alternative sources if Russian supplies are disrupted by secondary sanctions.“I’m not worried at all. If something happens, we’ll deal with it,” he said at an industry event in New Delhi.Puri noted that India had significantly diversified its sources of oil, expanding from 27 countries to about 40 now. He added that India would be able to handle any disruption in Russian imports by turning to other suppliers, pointing to new entrants such as Guyana and additional volumes from existing producers like Brazil and Canada.