In the Quad, countries meet, India alone has been neutral when it came to Russia. Biden now asks India to choose its ‘partner of choice’, despite knowing the long-standing Indo-Russian relations.
Ned Price, spokesperson of the US State Department on Wednesday said, “India is a valuable ally of the US. India and the US have a shared vision of an open and free Indo-Pacific corridor. We do not want India to have any allegiance to Russia at this hour of crisis, we are India’s partner and India has to wisely choose whom to be associated with.”
His comments come after India being the only Quad nation who stood neutral against Russia, Joe Biden commented India to be ‘somewhat shaky’ when it came to Russia
When asked how do the Quad partners perceive India’s response to Russia, Ned Price swiftly responded, “It all boils down to where we were and where we are now, India definitely has a strong bilateral relationship with Russia for its defence and security up-gradation. Now at this time and hour of crisis, the US is not keen on India to be an ally of Russia. Back in the day circumstances were different and so was the relationship status. With India, the US has had a glorious 25 years of a strong bilateral relationship too, and at this hour of crisis, our readiness to be India’s strong defence ally will also change for the better. Now the onus is on India to choose whom to partner with.”
He further added, “As a matter of fact we are India’s partner this very moment. And we definitely cannot stand India’s allegiance to Russia.”
However, Barry O’Farell, Australian High Commissioner to India said otherwise, “The Quad countries – US, Japan and Australia completely accept India’s position with Russia and this will definitely not affect the support ecosystem among the Quad countries. We totally agree that each nation has a bilateral tie and it is very evident from the MEA and PM Modi that they have strongly condemned the Russian offensive on Ukraine and have called for peace and the end of the war. By this, no nation will be unhappy with India.”
The Indo-US bilateral relationship covers a wide spectrum of verticals like trade and investment, education, defence and security, cyber security, science and technology, civil nuclear energy, clean energy, space technology, agriculture, health and environment.
