The US has noted that India has an old relationship with Russia and therefore encouraged New Delhi to “utilise” this relationship with Moscow so as to persuade President Putin to end the “Illegal war” in Ukraine.
This was said by Department of State spokesperson Mathew Miller during his daily press briefing on Monday.
“I want to underscore,” he said, “that India has a longstanding relationship with Russia. In fact, I think it is well-known. And we have encouraged India to utilize that relationship with Russia, that longstanding relationship and the unique position that they have, to urge President Putin to end his illegal war and find a just peace, a lasting peace to this conflict; tell Putin to respect the UN Charter, respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.”
When asked, he responded thus: “That’s what we’ll continue to impress upon the Government of India which is an important partner of ours when it comes to their relationship with Russia.”
On July 9 Mr. Miller made these observations shortly after Prime Minister Modi left Russia.
Prime Minister Modi visited Russia between July 8-9 for the 22nd India-Russia annual summit at a time when Ukraine was in turmoil following an invasion by Russian forces.
Since the start of hostilities between Kyiv and Moscow in 2022 this was Prime Minister Modi’s first visit to Russia.
On July 9 during talks with President Putin Mr. Modi told the Russian leader that there can be no solution on the battlefield over Ukraine while bombs are still being thrown and bullets are flying.
It should be mentioned here that notwithstanding Ukrainian crisis India has maintained momentum in its ties defending its “special and privileged strategic partnership” with Russia.
India is yet to condemn Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 but instead continued calling for dialogue towards finding resolution for the ongoing conflict.
