BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, April 28 (Reuters) – The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas urged partner countries in Southeast Asia on Tuesday not to turn to Russia for oil supplies as they try to cope with widespread fuel shortages caused by the Middle East conflict.
The EU approved a fresh round of sanctions on Russia this month, including tightened restrictions on oil trade, as it looks to undermine Moscow’s ability to fund its war in Ukraine.
Kallas said Russia has benefited from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the main transport route for about a fifth of the world’s oil supplies and other vital goods.
“Just let me remind you that the oil revenues are the revenues that Russia is using to fund this war (in Ukraine). We have an interest that this war stops,” she told reporters after meeting with foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Brunei.
“That’s why we are, of course, advocating for diversifying resources and finding them elsewhere, not from Russia.”
Kallas did not specify whether or not the matter was raised during her meeting with ASEAN ministers.
Southeast Asian nations including Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia are among the countries seeking to source more oil from Russia, Reuters reported last month.
(Reporting by Ain Bandial in Bandar Seri Begawan; Writing by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by David Stanway)
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