India - US: Pressure on India to Change Position on Russia
STORIES, ANALYSES, EXPERT VIEWS
Pressure by the US and it Western allies increases on India to change its position regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict. President Joe Biden recently said that India is an exception among US major allies and that it 'has been somewhat shaky' on the Western sanctions.
At the same time, the US and its allies have been intensely courting India with offers of joint work in critical technologies and even offering to source oil and Russian military equipment.
Pentagon official Donald Lu and senior US diplomat Victorial Nuland, who played the role in ousting a pro-Russian Ukrainian President in 2014, have over the past two days met Jaishankar and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla with offers to replace practically everything that India sources from Russia.
The US efforts have been supplemented by a visit from Japanese PM, a phone call from the UK PM and a virtual summit with PM Modi by the Australian PM, all close US military and intelligence allies.
At the US State Department briefing, spokesperson Ned Price dodged a question on US sanctions on India for its purchase of Russian arms. But, India’s dependence on Russia for arms was at a time when the US was not in the market and it was time to review it, he suggested.
“It was a very different time, different considerations, but those times have changed. They’ve changed in terms of our willingness and ability to be a strong defence and security partner of India. This is a bilateral relationship that has deepened in a number of ways over the past 25 years or so,” said Price.
Calling 20 years of US-India defence –supplier relationship a “legacy”, Price said, “In large part of the George W. Bush administration, where we have seen this bilateral relationship between the United States and India evolve and change for the better and deepen in a number of ways, including in our defence and security relationship.”
“So, the fact is that we are a partner of India now. We are a partner of India when it comes to shared interests, when it comes to the values we share in a free and open Indo-Pacific. And we’ve invested in that relationship in terms of our defence and security. So historical relationships notwithstanding, we are a partner of choice for India now, as are many of our partners and allies around the world,” he underlined.
Interview with Victoria Nuland: understanding the contours of relationship
Visiting US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan.
Framing the Russia-China alliance over Ukraine as a debate between democracies and autocracies, in an interview with the Indian Express about her discussions, she said “it is very important for democracies to stand together.”
India’s dependence on Russian equipment: She said the US understands India’s historical relations with Russia and the “legacy of security support from the Soviet Union and Russia at a time when the US was less generous with India. Now, of course, times have changed and we are very eager to do more and more on the defence side with India…..
US can provide alternatives for India: “We also talked about the fact that, in this context, is Russia (going to) actually be a reliable supplier for India, a supplier you want to have? Look at how poorly Russian equipment is performing on the battlefield…….Russia has lost so much equipment so quickly in this conflict. So, are they actually going to have the supply lines? What we have been saying is, among other things, we have had over this last month, this massive US and allied partner-led effort to source Soviet-made equipment and other equipment for Ukraine. So if we can help provide that for Ukraine, we can also provide alternatives for India to make this transition that you yourself are seeking to make. It was a very rich discussion…….”
Indo-Pacific: Stating that the strategy, is really about "ensuring that we have a free, open, prosperous, technologically-open Indo-Pacific.” And that “India is a lynchpin” in this.
Who is a bigger threat — Russia or China?: “The worry now is that they intensify their efforts together. They learn from each other, whether it is how to coerce a neighbour economically, or militarily. Whether it’s about how to go in the UN system and undercut the rules of the road that the US, India and other democracies have built to favour freedom. Whether it is that they let each other off the hook by financing each other’s militaries. All of these things are worrying…….So I do think that this is a moment for us to stand up for what we are about."
Buying oil from Russia: Nuland made it clear that the US understands that for countries, some in Europe, more dependent on Russian oil, “it’s going to be a transition to Russian oil and gas dependence and we understand that…We have said that, in the context of India increasing it’s actually a relatively small amount of your energy mix. So that is understandable.”
