In an interview to discuss a visit to Ukraine in August which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is reported to be considering, Shashi Tharoor has said it would “make amends” and be “a rebalancing” for Modi’s visit to Moscow three weeks ago. Tharoor described Modi’s “bear hug” with Vladimir Putin as “a setback” adding it was “most unfortunately badly timed”.
He said the hug, which coincided with a major NATO Summit in Washington and a Russian attack on a children’s hospital in Ukraine which killed 37, gave the wrong impression to the Western world. He said the same about a phrase in the Indo-Russian joint statement which spoke about the war “around Ukraine” rather than in Ukraine. Tharoor suggested that a visit to Ukraine would make amends for both.
In a 25-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Shashi Tharoor, a former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, a former Under Secretary General of the UN and a four time Congress MP, said “(President) Biden is rethinking some of his enthusiasm to India” and the message being conveyed by the US is “we have other partners in Asia”. Therefore, “tough conversations from Washington are not entirely surprising,” he said.
Tharoor said so far Washington has been “indulgent” of India’s increasing reliance on Russian oil and, although not happy with Delhi’s refusal to criticise Russia for the invasion of Ukraine, has sought to treat this as an irritant and not allowed it to damage relations.
