U.S. President Joe Biden meets with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S. September 24, 2021. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
WASHINGTON, April 10 – President Joe Biden will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually on Monday, the White House said, at a time when the United States has made clear it does not want a surge in Russian energy imports want to see from India.
“President Biden will continue our close consultations on the fallout from Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine and mitigate its destabilizing impact on global food supplies and commodity markets,” spokesman Jen Psaki said in a statement Sunday.
Daleep Singh, US Assistant Security Advisor for International Economics, who recently visited India, said the United States would not put a “red line” on India’s energy imports from Russia but did not want to see a “quick acceleration” in purchases. Continue reading
Lured by steep rebates following Western sanctions against Russian companies, India has bought at least 13 million barrels of Russian crude since the country invaded Ukraine in late February. This compares to around 16 million barrels for all of last year, data compiled by Reuters shows.
This meeting will precede the “US-India 2+2 Ministerial Meeting” between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, the White House said.
Biden, who last spoke to Modi in March, recently said that among the Quad countries, only India is “a little wobbly” when it comes to taking action against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The South Asian nation has tried to balance its ties with Russia and the West, but unlike other members of the Quad states – the United States, Japan and Australia – it has not imposed sanctions on Russia.
Russia has long been India’s largest supplier of defense equipment, although it has made increasing purchases from the United States over the past decade. Defense analysts say Russian supplies are cheaper and vital for India as it faces a superior Chinese military.
Daleep Singh said during his visit that the United States stands ready to help India diversify its energy and defense supplies. India is the third largest oil importer and consumer in the world.
He also warned that the United States does not want its allies to help revive the ruble, which plummeted immediately after the war began but has recovered in recent days.
Ukraine said on Sunday it is seeking another round of European Union sanctions against Moscow and more military aid from its allies as it prepares for a major Russian offensive in the east of the country. Continue reading
Russia hasn’t taken any major cities since it began its invasion on February 24, but Ukraine says it has rallied its forces in the east for a major attack, urging people to flee.
Moscow has denied war crimes allegations by Ukraine and western countries. It has denied targeting civilians as part of a “special operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” its southern neighbor. Ukraine and Western nations have dismissed this as an unfounded pretext for war.
Biden and Modi will also discuss working together on a range of issues, including ending the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing the climate crisis, strengthening the global economy and maintaining a free, open, rules-based international order to strengthen security, democracy and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific, Psaki said.
Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Mark Porter