US President Joe Biden says his relationship with India is ‘excellent’

US President Joe Biden on Friday stated that he shared a “very good” relationship with India and has visited the nation twice, as he left on a weekend journey to his residence in Delaware.

The president advised reporters on the White House that he had been briefed on the three Americans who’ve been lacking in Ukraine.

“I don’t know where they are. But I want to reiterate. Americans should not be going to Ukraine. I say it again. Americans should not be going to Ukraine,” he said.

In response to a question on India, Biden said, “I’ve been to India twice and might be again. My relationship with (India is) excellent”.

Biden’s remarks came a day after State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the US is there for India and reiterated that New Delhi’s relationship with Moscow developed over several decades when Washington was “not ready or capable of be a accomplice of selection” for the Indian government.

Price was responding to a question on whether the US was talking with the Indian authorities as India and other Asian nations are becoming an increasingly vital source of oil revenues for sanctions-hit Russia, despite strong pressure from America.

“We have had quite a lot of discussions with our Indian companions, and the purpose that we’ve made is that each nation goes to have a distinct relationship with Moscow,” Price told reporters at his daily news conference on Thursday.

Russia has overtaken Saudi Arabia to become India’s second-biggest supplier of oil behind Iraq as refiners snap up Russian crude available at a deep discount following the war in Ukraine, industry data showed recently.

India, the world’s third-biggest oil-importing and consuming nation, has long defended purchases of crude oil from Russia following President Vladimir Putin ordering the invasion of Ukraine. The oil ministry had last month stated that “vitality purchases from Russia stay minuscule compared to India’s whole consumption.”

Price said India’s relationship with Russia developed over several decades.

“It developed over the course of many years at a time when the United States was not ready or capable of be a accomplice of selection for the Indian authorities,” he said.

“That has modified. This is a legacy of a bipartisan custom now that has been the case for greater than twenty years. It goes again actually to the Clinton administration, actually to the George W Bush administration, the place the United States has sought a partnership with India, has sought to be a accomplice of selection for India, together with in the case of the safety realm,” he said.

This is not a partnership built in the course of days, weeks, or months, Price said.

“I discussed earlier than that India’s relationship with Russia was constructed up over the course of many many years, as nations reorient their relationship with Moscow, as we’ve seen a lot of them do. This might be a gradual course of,” he said in response to a question.

“But all through all of it, we’ve made clear to our Indian companions that we’re there for them. We are prepared and in a position, and prepared to accomplice with them. And we have performed simply that,” Price said.

“Of course, we had a ‘2+2’ dialogue with our Indian companions not too way back. We will see Prime Minister Narendra Modi as soon as once more within the context of the I2U2, the association we’ve with the UAE and Israel, together with India, incorporating India into most of the partnerships we’ve, together with, after all, the Quad,” he said.

“And that could be a group this administration has sought to revitalise, and it has performed so at very excessive ranges,” the official added.

To re-energise and revitalise American alliances globally, the US, UAE, India and Israel have shaped a brand new grouping referred to as I2-U2. The 4 nations within the new grouping will maintain their first digital summit subsequent month.

Quad contains Japan, India, Australia and the United States.

The 4 nations in 2017 had given form to the Quadrilateral coalition to counter China’s aggressive behaviour within the Indo-Pacific area.