India is leaning toward continuing to import coking coal from Russia, the steel minister said on Sunday, seeming to buck a global trend to shun Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

“We are moving in the direction of importing coking coal from Russia,” Ramchandra Prasad Singh told a conference in New Delhi.

Western countries and Japan have slapped unexpectedly heavy sanctions on the government of President Vladimir Putin and people associated with him. India, a major buyer of Russian goods from commodities to weapons, has abstained from several key United Nations votes condemning the Feb. 24 invasion.

“Smooth supplies” from Russia of coking coal, a key ingredient in making steel, have been affected, Singh said, in an apparent reference to the war. He did not elaborate. (Editing by Rupam Jain, William Mallard)