New Delhi: After a senior US State Department official expressed disappointment at the “symbolism and timing” of the visit to Russia by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India responded on Thursday, July 25, emphasising the importance of respecting “freedom of choice” in a multipolar world.
Earlier this month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Moscow for his first bilateral foreign trip in his third term. As Modi arrived, Russian missiles struck Ukrainian cities, including a children’s hospital in Kyiv. After videos and photos of Modi and Putin embracing each other circulated around the world, Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy publicly castigated the Indian leader.
The US State Department had also said that it expressed its concerns to the Indian side. The US ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, had also cautioned that there was “no such thing as strategic autonomy” during a conflict.
At a Congressional hearing in Capitol Hill on Wednesday, there were stronger words, both from the legislative and executive branches of the US administration.
Republican Congressman Joe Wilson, a former co-chair of the India caucus in Congress, expressed his dismay, stating that he was “shocked and saddened to see the embrace by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who I so respect and admire, embrace war criminal Putin in Moscow on the very day that Putin intentionally launched missiles at the largest children’s hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine”.
In response, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu said that he “could not agree with you more about our disappointment about the symbolism and the timing of Prime Minister Modi’s trip to Moscow”.
He added that the US was “having those tough conversations with our Indian friends”.
The next day in New Delhi, the ministry of external affairs asserted that India has a long-standing relationship with Russia “based on mutuality of interests”.
“In a multipolar world, all countries have the freedom of choice. It is essential for everybody to be mindful of and appreciate such realities,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal during a weekly media briefing on Thursday.
India has never explicitly condemned Russia for its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has consistently abstained from United Nations resolutions criticizing Russia. However, New Delhi has also called for a peaceful resolution through dialogue and the protection of civilians in conflict.
Prime Minister Modi reiterated this stance in his talks with Putin, stating that a solution to the Ukraine conflict is not possible on the battlefield.
The senior US diplomat Donald Lu also attempted to balance his criticism by referring to Modi’s statement for an end to violence, and a previous meeting with the Ukrainian president in Italy two weeks earlier.
He also mentioned that Modi had referred to the death of children in conflict as being painful in his public remarks with Putin. While Modi had not named anyone, Lu interpreted them to be a “clear reference to the bombing of the children’s hospital in Kyiv that happened while he was there”.
Lu also assured the US lawmakers that India was reducing its dependence on Russian military equipment.
“The Indians, who have cancelled billions of dollars in defence purchases over these last two and a half years because the Russians can’t deliver anymore. So we’re working very hard on that”.
He also stated that India and Russia did not sign any new defence deals during the visit.
