New Delhi: For the second day in a row, the United States has expressed “concerns” about India’s relationship with Russia, underlining that the US has already made its displeasure known to the authorities in the Indian government over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia.
Speaking to reporters, State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller said, “So, as I said yesterday, we have been quite clear about our concerns about India’s relationship with Russia. We have expressed those privately, directly to the Indian Government and continue to do so, and that hasn’t changed.”
He specifically said they “have had conversations with them (Indian authorities) in the past 24 hours, and I think I’ll keep the contents of those private”.
“Well, as I said yesterday, we urge India, we continue to urge India, to support efforts to realize an enduring and just peace in Ukraine based on the principles of the UN Charter, based on upholding Ukraine’s territorial integrity and its sovereignty. And that will continue to be what we will engage with Ukraine – I’m sorry – we will engage with India about,” Miller added.
Modi’s visit to Russia and the specific act of him hugging Russian President Vladimir Putin on the same day when a children’s hospital in Kyiv was attacked by Russian forces has caused severe outrage across the Western capitals. The photos of Modi and Putin hugging each other circulated globally, contrasting with images of the damaged children’s hospital in the Ukrainian capital.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy had posted on X that it was a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day”. In the same post, he had published photos of the aftermath of the missile strike on the children’s hospital.
The US too weighed in. Earlier, Miller had told reporters on Monday that Washington had urged India during Modi’s visit to make it clear to Russia that “any resolution to the conflict in Ukraine needs to be one that respects the UN Charter, that respects Ukraine’s territorial integrity, Ukraine’s sovereignty”.
“And India is a strategic partner with whom we engage in a full and frank dialogue, and that includes on our concerns about the relationship with Russia,” Miller had said, during the daily media briefing at Foggy Bottom.
He had also stated that the United States “will look to Prime Minister Modi’s public remarks to see what he talked about”.
