US on reorienting India’s overseas coverage away from Russia: ‘Not like flipping a light switch’

It goes to be a long-term proposition for India — which has a decades-old relationship with Moscow — to reorient its overseas coverage away from Russia, the US has mentioned, insisting that re-aligning one’s method isn’t like flipping a lightweight change.

When requested about India rising its imports of Russian oil and fertilisers and probably shopping for the Russian air defence programs, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price mentioned, “It is not for me to speak about another country’s foreign policy.”

“But what I can do is point out what we have heard from India. We have seen countries around the world speak clearly, including with their votes in the UN General Assembly against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine,” Price advised reporters in Washington.

“But we also recognise, as I was saying just a moment ago, that this is not flipping a light switch,” he mentioned on Wednesday.

“This is something that, especially for countries that have historical relationships with Russia. Relationships that, as is the case with India, extend back decades, it is going to be a long-term proposition to re-orient foreign policy away from Russia,” he mentioned in response to a query.

The US and European nations have imposed heavy sanctions on Russia since Moscow despatched troops into Ukraine on February 24.

India has raised oil imports from Russia after the Ukraine struggle regardless of criticism from the West and continues to interact with Moscow for enterprise.

In May, Russia overtook Saudi Arabia to turn into India’s second-biggest provider of oil behind Iraq as refiners snapped up Russian crude accessible at a deep low cost following the struggle in Ukraine.

Indian refiners purchased about 25 million barrels of Russian oil in May.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday mentioned New Delhi had not been defensive about its stand on shopping for Russian oil however made the US and others realise that the federal government had the “moral duty” to make sure that the folks bought the “best deal”.

“Every country will try naturally to get the best possible for its citizens.” Here’s how S Jaishankar defended India’s determination to purchase oil from Russia. pic.twitter.com/xq9BBQDGqn

— Brut India (@BrutIndia) August 17, 2022

In October 2018, India signed a USD 5 billion cope with Russia to purchase 5 items of the S-400 air defence missile programs, regardless of a warning from the then-Trump administration that going forward with the contract could invite US sanctions.

The S-400 is called Russia’s most superior long-range surface-to-air missile defence system. The US has already imposed sanctions on Turkey below the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for the acquisition of a batch of S-400 missile defence programs from Russia.

The US, Price mentioned, has labored very intently with India bilaterally and thru the Quad grouping “to signal, and the Indians have done so very clearly what should be the inviolable principle of state sovereignty”.

On Russia, China India army train

Price additionally responded to a sequence of questions on a multilateral joint army train that entails Russia and China and a number of other different nations, together with India, saying nations routinely make their very own sovereign selections.

“It is absolutely their right to do so regarding what, if any, military exercises to take part in. I’ll also note that most of the participating countries also routinely participate in a wide array of military exercises and exchanges with the United States as well,” he mentioned.

The US doesn’t learn something into their engagements on this exercise, Price mentioned.

Had an impressive assembly with @POTUS @JoeBiden. His management on important world points is commendable. We mentioned how India and USA will additional scale-up cooperation in several spheres and work collectively to beat key challenges like COVID-19 and local weather change. pic.twitter.com/nnSVE5OSdL

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 24, 2021

“Now, the broader point is that we have seen a burgeoning relationship, including in the security realm between the PRC (People’s Republic of China) and Russia. We’ve seen a burgeoning relationship between Russia and Iran for example, and we have made public elements of that,” he mentioned.

“That is of concern because of the vision that countries like China and Russia have for the international order,” Price mentioned.

It is a imaginative and prescient that’s starkly at odds with the liberal imaginative and prescient that the US and its allies and companions have for the worldwide system, he mentioned.

“It is starkly at odds with the underpinnings of the international system that has been in place for some eight decades following the end of the second World War, a system that has undergirded unprecedented levels of stability, security, prosperity across the world that includes including Europe, Indo-Pacific and everywhere in between,” he famous.

“It is the difference between a profoundly liberal order and a profoundly illiberal order in which all of the principles that the United States, that our allies, that our partners, that the United Nations, and that, by the way, countries like Russia and China have previously stood for and in some cases still profess to stand for,” Price mentioned.

It is a imaginative and prescient that’s profoundly against a lot of these ideas, he added.

“…We’ve been very clear in our engagements with the PRC regarding the consequences of doing so. We have yet to see any change in the PRC’s behaviour indicating that they are moving in that direction,” Price mentioned.