Heartened by PM Modi’s comment to Putin on Ukraine conflict, says US official

The US is heartened by the current remarks made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Russian President Vladimir Putin that this isn’t the time for conflict in Ukraine, a senior Pentagon official has stated.

Prime Minister Modi met President Putin in Uzbek metropolis of Samarkand on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit on September 16 and in the course of the assembly, PM Modi informed Putin, “Today’s period will not be an period of conflict, and I’ve spoken to you on the telephone about this.”

On his part, Putin told PM Modi that he was aware of India’s concerns over the Ukraine conflict and that Russia will do everything possible to end it as soon as possible.

The US has said that it is heartened by the comments made by Prime Minister Modi.

“We were heartened by Prime Minister Modi’s comments last weekend,” Dr Ely Ratner, Assistant Secretary of Defence for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs told a group of reporters on Thursday and think-tank experts during a virtual round table.

Recently, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also told reporters at a White House news conference that what the prime minister said was “a press release of precept on behalf of what he believes is correct and simply (and) it was very a lot welcomed by the US.”

Ratner stated that the US shares India’s dedication to seeing a swift and peaceable decision of the battle and continues to interact commonly on this situation.

“We obviously recognise that India has a long and complicated history in terms of its security partnership with Russia and has been in the process over the last many years of diversifying its arms and imports as well as prioritising its own indigenous development, and we want to support them,” Ratner stated.

“We want to support India on both fronts and are doing so. We think the trend lines are heading in the right direction. We are deeply engaged in conversations on exploring opportunities for co-development and co-production. We are also looking for ways to support India’s own indigenisation, which we know is a huge priority for Prime Minister Modi and in the military there,” stated the senior Pentagon official.

Responding to a different query, he stated the US is taking a tough have a look at the co-development and co-production underneath the Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI).

“We are taking a hard look now at DTTI more broadly and actively discussing with the Indian government how we can adapt the initiative to meet the scope and ambition of our defence partnership. This is an area where we see a lot of great promise. Our leaders are fairly focused on this and again the Two Plus Two ministerial next spring is hoping to have some progress to announce on this front,” he stated.

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