US voices ‘concerns’ on India-Russia relationship

Asked whether the US had raised the issue recently, Miller confirmed: “We have had conversations with them in the past 24 hours.”

He said the US continues to “urge India to support efforts to realise an enduring and just peace in Ukraine, based on the principles of the UN charter, based on upholding Ukraine’s territorial integrity and its sovereignty. And that will continue to be what we will engage with India about”.

A day earlier, Miller had said: “India is a strategic partner with whom we engage in a full and frank dialogue. And that includes our concerns about their relationship with Russia.”

“I will look at Prime Minister Modi’s public remarks to see what he talked about. But as I said, we made quite clear directly with India our concerns about their relationship with Russia. So we would hope India and any other country, when they engage with Russia, would make clear that Russia should respect the UN charter, should respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he had said.

On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesperson Major General Pat Ryder said: “India and Russia have had a relationship for a very long time. From a US perspective, India is a strategic partner with whom we continue to engage in full and frank dialogue to include their relationship with Russia. As it relates to the NATO summit being this week, of course, like you, the world is focused on that.”

“I do not think anybody will be surprised if (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin tries to represent this visit in a way that seeks to somehow show that he is not isolated from the rest of the world. And the fact of the matter is President Putin’s war of choice has isolated Russia from the rest of the world, and it has come at great cost… So we will continue to view India as a strategic partner. We will continue to have a robust dialogue with them,” Ryder said.

When a reporter said Putin was “not looking so isolated with the head of the world’s largest democracy being in Moscow, embracing him right now”, Ryder replied that Modi also met Zelenskyy recently. “I think that we trust that India will support efforts to realise an enduring and just peace for Ukraine and will convey to Mr Putin the importance of adhering to the UN charter and the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.

Acknowledging that his two-day visit to Moscow was being watched by the “entire world”, Modi walked the hard diplomatic tightrope in his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. So, a day after a suspected Russian missile struck a children’s hospital in Kyiv, Modi told Putin that the death of innocent children causes “pain and the heart simply explodes”, “peace talks do not succeed amid bombs, guns and bullets”, and “solution (to any conflict) cannot be found on the battlefield”. At the same time, Modi underlined that both had a “frank” exchange on Ukraine and he had sensed a “new way” of thinking.