With oil producers' cartel OPEC playing havoc with prices, India has proposed a grand alliance with top Asian oil buyers like China, South Korea and Japan to negotiate better terms with sellers.
In a throwback to 2005 when the then oil minister Mani Shankar Aiyar had proposed an alliance of the oil consuming nations, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said India will try to create a network with China, Japan and South Korea to take up issues like premium being charged from Asian buyers.
"I see bigger cooperation between four big economies of Asia, that is India, China, Japan and South Korea. India will try to create a network between these four economies," he told reporters on the sidelines of an industry event here.
India is the world's third largest oil importer after China and the US. Japan is the fourth largest importer and South Korea is right behind it. The four nations account for over a third of the oil imports in the world.
"Why should biggest consumers pay more. Why should these countries pay more in name of Asian premium," he asked. "All the four major Asian economies should come together. And India will try to create a network for that within the four countries."
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