Sergey Lavrov says US forcing others to follow its politics; won't impact Indo-Russia ties

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday said that 'no pressure' will affect the ties between India and Russia. Lavrov, in response to a question pertaining to US pressure on India as Russia's offensive in Ukraine continues, said that Joe Biden-led country was forcing others to follow their politics'. 

The Russian Foreign Minister is on a two-day visit to India. Notably, this is the Russian Foreign Minister's second visit overseas since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the first being that to China, besides a visit to Turkey for talks with his Ukrainian counterpart. 

Russia's Foreign Minister hails India for not taking sides 

On the first day of his visit, Lavrov met his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar at Hyderabad House in the national capital after which the two leaders acknowledged that the meeting was taking place in a rather “difficult international environment." Praising India for its move of not taking sides,  Lavrov said, "These days our western colleagues would like to reduce any meaningful international issue to the crisis in Ukraine. We do not fight anything and we appreciated that India is taking this situation in the entirety of effect," he added.

Taking cognizance of Lavrov's statement, S Jaishankar said that New Delhi has “always been in favour of resolving differences and disputes through dialogue and diplomacy”. 

It is pertinent to mention here that India abstained from voting on a Russia-backed resolution in the United Nations Security Council. Russia’s resolution was perceived to be critical of Ukraine. The resolution failed to pass as it lacked nine more votes. Previously, India also abstained from voting on resolutions aimed at isolating Russia at the UNSC.

New Delhi advocated peace, dialogue and diplomacy to prevail over ‘military hostilities’ with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging both Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to speak directly.