White House ‘concerned’ over India’s ties with Russia
The White House has expressed “concern” over India’s collaboration with Russia in the defense and technology sectors. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, who visited India along with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan last week, stressed that the US has conveyed its concerns to the Indian side.
“We (the US and India) have many areas of alignment, but it is not surprising that there would be areas where we had perhaps different perspectives, views, historical ties,” he said, as quoted by PTI news agency.
Commenting on India’s ties with Russia, Campbell said the US would take whatever steps it can to “mitigate some of those engagements.”
Following discussions between Sullivan and his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval last week, the US and India released a joint statement covering various areas of cooperation. The document notes that the countries have agreed to prevent the leakage of sensitive technology to “countries of concern” – without naming any particular country.
Campbell's statements followed the announcement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming visit to Moscow. Modi’s bilateral summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to be his first state visit abroad since the beginning of his third term in office.
Despite intense scrutiny from the West, New Delhi has maintained robust ties with Moscow and abstained from UN declarations condemning Russia over the Ukraine conflict.
Bilateral trade between the two countries surpassed an unprecedented $65 billion last year, largely driven by India’s increased imports of discounted Russian coal and oil. Moscow remains New Delhi’s largest supplier of arms, despite India actively onshoring defense production and diversifying its sources of imports.
India, which has advocated the use of dialogue and diplomacy to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict, also refused to sign the final document of the recently-held Swiss Peace Summit, as Russia was not invited.
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