As US warns of consequences, India says it is stabilising ties with Russia

Tribune News Service

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, April 7

India has announced that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will together visit Washington next week.

The announcement came on a day US President Joe Biden’s top economic advisor said New Delhi has been informed that the consequences of a “more explicit strategic alignment” with Moscow would be significant and long-term.

“There are certainly areas where we have been disappointed by both China and India’s decisions, in the context of the invasion,” said Director of the White House National Economic Council, Brian Deese.

But the MEA said it has established economic relations with Russia and political colouring should not be attributed to the engagement. MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said discussions are underway to see what kind of payment mechanism can work between India and Russia in the current circumstances. Bagchi said India has been very open about its engagement with Russia and pointed out that Europe has continued buying crude oil and gas from Russia.

Jaishnakar and Rajnath will lead the Indian delegation to participate in the Fourth India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue on April 11 in Washington D.C.

“The dialogue would take a comprehensive review of cross-cutting issues in the bilateral agenda related to foreign policy, defence and security to further consolidate the relationship,” said a MEA statement.

As part of an ongoing and regular dialogue, S Jaishankar will separately meet Blinken besides senior members of the US Administration.

A US State Department readout said it is an “important opportunity to advance our shared objectives’’ in several areas but there was no mention of Ukraine or Russia. The US readout instead stressed on the growing major defense partnership with India and the shared Indo-Pacific interests.

The comments by MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi came in response to questions on growing criticism of New Delhi by several Western powers on its trade ties with Moscow notwithstanding the crisis in Ukraine.

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