New Delhi: With the Ukraine issue dogging his Australia visit, the Indian external affairs minister on Monday reiterated that a robust defence partnership with Russia had served India’s interests well when the West refused to supply weapons due to Cold War geopolitics.

At the same time, he also gave a public stamp of approval to IAEA’s positive assessment, disputed by China, over the trilateral AUKUS initiative to supply nuclear-powered submarines to Australia.

Jaishankar, currently visiting Canberra, chaired the 13th foreign ministers’ framework dialogue along with his counterpart Penny Wong on Monday.

At a press conference after the talks, Jaishankar was asked whether India is rethinking its relationship with Russia after the Ukraine war, especially over reliance on Russian weapons systems.

“With regard to India and Russia, we have really a longstanding relationship with Russia, a relationship that has certainly served our interest well,” replied Jaishankar.

He then pointed out that India’s dependence on Soviet and Russian weapon systems was mainly due to other doors being shut during the Cold War period, when the US and other Western countries were instead supplying weapons to New Delhi's arch-rival Pakistan.

“And when you asked about the military equipment issue – we have, as you know a substantial inventory of Soviet and Russian origin weapons, and that inventory actually grew for a variety of reasons – you know, the merits of the weapon systems themselves, but also because for multiple decades, Western countries did not supply weapons to India and in fact saw a military dictatorship next to us as the preferred partner,” he said.

Meanwhile, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong slammed Russia’s “immoral invasion” of Ukraine. She reiterated that “the annexation, so-called sham annexations, or sham referenda and the annexations are illegal, and we remain of the view that Russia's invasion is illegal”.

“In relation to India, I would indicate again that we welcomed Prime Minister Modi raising his concerns with Mr Putin in September, I think it was, and as Prime Minister Modi has told Mr Putin, this is not the time for war,” she added.

While Western countries have been referring repeatedly to Modi’s "not the time for war" statement to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Moscow has also maintained that it is consistent with the Indian position and in line with its stance.

The Australian foreign minister also stated India’s position on the Ukraine war has not impacted the Quad initiative. “Look, I think the Quad is functioning extremely well. I think that the level of strategic trust and strategic consistency amongst Quad partners is deep and firm. And as I said, you know, I note Prime Minister Modi's public comments, and we've welcomed them,” said Wong. India is the only country among the four Quad countries which has not publicly condemned Russia for invading Ukraine.

Adding that the Quad primarily focuses on the Indo-Pacific, Jaishankar noted, “that's an area where the convergence of interests between the Quad partners is particularly strong”.

The Indian foreign minister also, for the first time, publicly indicated New Delhi’s support for the AUKUS initiative in the face of Chinese opposition that it violates the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Last month, India, Brazil and others successfully lobbied against the tabling of a Chinese-sponsored draft resolution at the General Conference of the UN’s atomic energy watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which would have put a roadblock on the planned supply of nuclear submarines to Australia.

The IAEA issued a report that it was “satisfied” with the cooperation from the US, Australia and the UK in monitoring the nuclear material. Slamming the report, China implied that the IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi had become “reduced to a political tool of the three countries”.

Referring to the clash at the IAEA general conference, Jaishankar gave a personal defence of Grossi’s neutrality and described the report as “very objective”. “On the AUKUS, look, the issue did come up for debate at the General Conference, and I think the IAEA director general, who is a very, very seasoned and very well-respected professional in that particular domain, is someone I know myself having worked in that field for many years as well, I think he gave a very objective assessment of what the issue was all about, and I think we respected that and we urged other members to do so as well,” he told reporters.

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