Jaishankar urges G20 to keep energy markets predictable

India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar urged G20 members to keep energy markets open and predictable, saying the global energy crisis is driven by disruption and barriers to access rather than insufficient production. Speaking at the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Atlanta on Friday, October 30, Jaishankar said energy trade and infrastructure were being deliberately attacked in what he described as a calculated strategy to hold prices hostage. He cited obstacles, sanctions and chokepoints as contributing to increasingly frequent and complex distortions in energy markets, with wider effects. Jaishankar said the disruptions were raising costs and creating access challenges, while low-income countries appeared to receive little regard. He also warned against drawing convenient distinctions between oil and gas, saying the effects of energy-market disruptions can spread through a globalized market. He did not identify a country or specify which carveouts he meant. He called on the G20 to show leadership in keeping markets open and predictable, expanding access to finance and advancing energy storage, small modular reactors, green hydrogen and biofuels. These were...