The United States has drawn a parallel between China's belligerence against India as well as elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific region and Russia's military build-up around Ukraine, even as President Joe Biden's administration had an “open and honest discussion” with New Delhi over Moscow's aggression against the East European nation.
The Biden Administration subtly reminded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government of India's professed commitment to the principles of “rules-based international order”, which, according to the US, apply not only in the Indo-Pacific, but also in Europe.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had a bilateral meeting with Biden's Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Melbourne in Australia last week on the sideline of a meeting of the Quad – a coalition forged by India, Japan, Australia and the US to build a bulwark of democratic nations against China's hegemonic aspirations in the Indo-Pacific region.
Blinken raised the issue of Russia's military build-up around Ukraine, not only in the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Quad, but also discussed it separately in the bilateral meeting with Jaishankar, apparently in view of India's friendly relations with Russia and the decades-old defence cooperation between the two nations.
Also read: US has 'every indication' that Russia is prepared to move into Ukraine in the next few days: Biden
Blinken had an “open and honest discussion” with Jaishankar on the issue of Russia's preparation for an invasion into Ukraine, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Donald Lu, said in Washington DC on Thursday.
“There was a strong consensus in that meeting (of the Quad Foreign Minister) that there needs to be a diplomatic, peaceful resolution to this (crisis over Russia's move against Ukraine),” Ned Price, the spokesperson of the US State Department, said. “One of the core tenets of the Quad is to reinforce the rules-based international order, and that is a rules-based order that applies equally in the Indo-Pacific as it does in Europe, as it does anywhere else.”
The Quad Foreign Ministers had addressed a joint news conference after the meeting in Melbourne last Friday. Jaishankar had maintained silence even as Blinken was joined by the Japanese and Australian foreign ministers, Yoshimasa Hayashi and Marise Payne, in slamming Russia for its military build-up against Ukraine.
The delicate balance New Delhi has been maintaining with Moscow and Washington DC came under stress after tension escalated between Russia and the US over the issue of Ukraine.
India had on January 31 avoided siding with the US at the United Nations Security Council and refrained from supporting its move to hold a meeting of the council to discuss Russia’s military build-up around Ukraine.
“We know that our Indian partners are committed to that rules-based international order,” Price said in Washington DC. “There are any number of tenets to that order. One of them is that borders cannot be redrawn by force, that large countries cannot bully small countries; that only the people of a particular country can be in a position to choose their foreign policy, their partnerships, their alliances, their associations. Those are principles that apply equally in the Indo-Pacific as they do in Europe,” he reiterated.
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