U.S. Whines over Indo Russian Talks
The U.S. has once again started whining over India considering a Russian proposal that would just brush aside all the “imperial “ sanctions imposed by America and its allies on Russia.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has travelled to Delhi for talks on the Russian proposals. Neither side has released detailed information on Lavrov’s schedule in India.
India has no time for such Western gimmicks. They cannot dictate and try to derail the economic progress and economic uplifting of people of India. So India has decided to brush aside against U.S. sanctions by noting that it needs Russian arms and oil as alternatives are too expensive. The strategic relationship between India and Russia dates back to the Cold War and remains robust. Even when Indo US relations have improved in recent times, it does not mean old friends like Russia will be ditched.
Best is that During Lavrov’s trip, India is also hosting U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics Daleep Singh and U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. Her office said she “will point to the importance of all countries reducing strategic dependency on Russia at this time of heightened global insecurity.” So Liz Truss feels like educating India ? Great !!!!
“Now is the time to stand on the right side of history, and to stand with the United States and dozens of other countries, standing up for freedom, democracy and sovereignty with the Ukrainian people, and not funding and fuelling and aiding President Putin’s war,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters in Washington on Wednesday. She called reports of the arrangement “deeply disappointing,” while adding that she hadn’t seen details.
India has seen lots of such gimmicks regarding “ freedom, democracy etc etc “ by the West. They are just self centered opportunists. India is taking actions as per own National Interests.
Dan Tehan, Australia’s trade minister who also spoke at the briefing, said it was important for democracies to work together “to keep the rules-based approach that we’ve had since the second world war.”
The comments reflect growing unease with India among fellow members of the Quad, a group of democracies seeking to counter China’s assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region that also includes the U.S., Australia and Japan. India is the world’s largest buyer of Russian weapons, and has also sought to buy cheap oil as fuel prices surge.
While India has supported calls for a cease-fire and a diplomatic solution, it abstained at the United Nations on votes for draft resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion that were ultimately vetoed by Moscow. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that India is weighing a plan to make rupee-rouble-denominated payments using an alternative to SWIFT after the U.S. and European Union cut off seven Russian banks from using the Belgium-based cross-border payment system operator.
The Russian plan involves rupee-rouble-denominated payments using the country’s messaging system SPFS and central bank officials from Moscow are likely to visit next week to discuss the details. No final decision has been taken.
India’s middle-ground position on the war has left to a raft of diplomacy in the past few weeks, with China’s foreign minister visiting for the first time since 2019 and now Lavrov seeking to shore up support. At the same time, the U.S. and its allies are also stepping up engagement in a bid to influence Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited Delhi earlier this month, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison also held a video summit with Modi. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a call with his counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, to discuss “the worsening humanitarian situation in Ukraine” among other issues.
