Biden admn committed to working with India on its transition away from Russia: White House

Washington, November 9

The Biden administration is committed to working with India on its transition away from Russia, the White House has said.

It said there are a number of countries that have learned “the hard way of the fact” that Moscow is not a reliable source of energy or security.

When it comes to India’s relationship with Russia, the US has consistently made the point that it is a relationship that developed and was cemented over the course of decades, really came to be during the Cold War at a time when the United States was not in a position to be an economic partner, a security partner, a military partner to India, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at a news conference here on Tuesday.

“That has changed. That’s changed over the past 25 or so years. It’s really a legacy, a bipartisan legacy that this country has achieved over the course of the past quarter century. President George W Bush’s administration was really the first to put this into effect,” he said.

Price said the US had sought to deepen its partnership with India in every sector, including economics, security and military cooperation.

“Now, this is a transition that we’ve always been clear-eyed will not take place overnight, over the course of even a few months or probably even over the course of a couple of years. India is a large country, a vast country, a large economy that has demanding needs,” he said.

“So, the transition and the reorientation that we hope to see from India is something that this administration will be committed to working with India on. But this will likely be a task not only for this administration but for administrations to come,” Price said in response to a question.

Responding to a question on India’s purchase of oil from Russia, he said the United States had been intentional about exempting oil and gas, the energy sector, from the sanctions that had been imposed on Moscow.

“So, the fact that India has high demand for energy, that it continues to seek oil and other forms of energy from Russia, that is not something that runs afoul of the sanctions that have been imposed,” he said.