The Indian government has taken up on priority the issue of ban on imports of Russian-origin unpolished diamonds by the European Union (EU) and G7 nations as the measure will end up hurting the domestic diamond polishing industry mainly centred in Gujarat's Surat city, said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on 01 April. The initial stage of an EU and G7 ban on imports of Russia-origin diamonds via third countries came into effect in early March, a step taken as part of sanctions on Moscow in response to its invasion of Ukraine. "Our effort is to delay (the initial stage of ban), soften it, and best of all, not let this happen at all. For us, this has become a priority issue, and we will try to find out a solution in coming days," Jaishankar said here. He was responding to a question on how the ban is going to hurt the Surat diamond industry, which polishes 90 per cent of the world's rough diamond. (ICE NEW DELHI)

Fonte notizia: Economic Times