Washington: America is for India, the Biden administration has reiterated, adding that New Delhi’s relationship with Moscow evolved over several decades when Washington was “not ready or able to be a partner of choice” for the Indian government.
State Department spokesman Ned Price’s remarks came in response to a question whether the US is in talks with Indian officials as oil remains an important source of revenue for sanctions-hit Russia despite strong pressure from India and other Asian countries. are becoming.
“We’ve had a lot of discussions with our Indian partners, and the point we’ve made is that every country will have a different relationship with Moscow,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference on Thursday. ”
Recent industry data showed that Russia has overtaken Saudi Arabia to become India’s second largest oil supplier after Iraq, as refiners buy Russian crude available at huge discounts after the war in Ukraine. take.
India, the world’s third largest oil importer and consumer, has long defended crude oil purchases from Russia after President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine. The oil ministry said last month that “energy purchases from Russia are very low compared to India’s total consumption”.
Price said India’s relations with Russia have evolved over several decades. “It developed over the course of decades at a time when the United States was not ready or able to be the partner of choice for the Indian government,” Price said. It’s changed. It is now a legacy of a bipartisan tradition. This has been the case for more than two decades. It actually goes back to the Clinton administration, certainly to the George W. Bush administration, where the United States has sought a partnership with India to be the partner of choice for India. When it comes to the security sector,” he said.
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Price said this is not a partnership built over the course of days, weeks or months. “I mentioned earlier that India’s relations with Russia were built over several decades, as countries re-orient their relations with Moscow, as we have seen many of them do. It will be a gradual process ,” he said in response to one. Question. “But throughout all of this, we have made it clear to our Indian partners that we are there for them. We are ready and capable, and ready to partner with them. And we have done just that,” Price said. “Of course, we had a ‘2+2’ dialogue not long ago with our Indian partners. We will see Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again in the context of I2U2, which we have with the United Arab Emirates and Israel. India, Certainly involving India in many of our partnerships, including the Quad,” he said.
“And this is a group that this administration has sought to revive, and it has done so at a very high level,” the official said. To reactivate and revive American alliances globally, the US, the United Arab Emirates, India and Israel have formed a new group called I2-U2. The four countries in the new grouping will hold their first virtual summit next month. The quad includes Japan, India, Australia and the United States. The four countries had shaped the quadrilateral alliance in 2017 to counter China’s aggressive behavior in the Indo-Pacific region.