Katrin Fidencio,
San Diego, USA
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden reached “substantive outcomes” on Tuesday May 24, in talks to strengthen their trade and defence ties, India said, though Modi refrained from condemning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
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The leaders were in Tokyo for a meeting of the Quad group of countries — the US, India, Japan and Australia.
Observers say that the Quad Summit held in Tokyo provided an excellent opportunity for the leaders to exchange views about developments in the Indo-Pacific region and prevailing global issues-more so the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
However, of the four members in the Quad, only India has not condemned Russia’s invasion despite pressure from the US for it to do so.
International media sources claim that the Indian Prime Minister Modi once again dodged an invitation by President Joe Biden to openly criticise Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Global Times dated May 25, 2022, writes that “ in a readout of the two leaders’ meeting that was officially released on the White House website right after the event, it said that “President Biden condemned Russia’s unjustifiable war against Ukraine,” and it appeared to be Biden alone.
This perhaps makes it clear that Prime Minister Modi though met President Biden but refused to toe the US line.
The US takes India as a strategic partner though.
“Discussed ways to strengthen cooperation in trade, investment, technology, defence, P2P ties between the two countries,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi, said on Twitter, referring to people-to-people ties.
“Concluded with substantive outcomes adding depth and momentum to the bilateral partnership.”
The White House said in a statement that Biden, in the meeting with Modi, had condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but there was no mention of Modi doing so. Modi had agreed on humanitarian help for Ukraine, it said.
“The leaders committed to continue providing humanitarian assistance, and discussed how to cooperate to manage disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine, in particular the rise in energy and food prices, to protect their respective citizens and the world,” the White House said.
Russia has been India’s biggest arms supplier for decades and India is wary of seeing Russia pushed even closer to China, with which India has serious border disagreements.
India has called for an end to the violence in Ukraine.
The US has in recent months offered to sell more defence equipment and oil to India to pry it away from Russia. India has also joined a US-led trade partnership that Biden launched this week, called the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity.
The White House said India would be joining the US-backed Combined Military Forces-Bahrain as an associate member. The maritime partnership has 34 members from around the world but does not include China.
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