India will continue buying Russian oil as it is advantageous for the country, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Tuesday after meeting his Russian counterpart. India has emerged as Russia’s largest oil customer after China, as refiners snap up discounted Russian oil shunned by Western buyers over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

India, the world’s third-largest oil importer and a traditional ally of Russia, has not explicitly condemned what Russia calls its “special military operation in Ukraine”, and Tuesday marked the fifth meeting this year between Jaishankar and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.