India-Russia relationship decades old, we're reliable partners post Ukraine war: US

A top advisor of US Secretary Antony Blinken acknowledged that the India-Russia relationship is decades old and added, "Washington fully understands New Delhi's long-standing ties to Moscow."

While speaking to the news agency ANI on Thursday, Derek Chollet, Blinken's top advisor said that India and Russia have been sharing a "good bond" when the United States was not available to be a partner.

However, he stressed that the India-US partnership has also enough potential to thrive tremendously. "We understand that India has had a long-standing defence relationship with Russia over many years and part of that was because the United States was not available to be a partner. It is decades ago and we face a much different reality today," Chollet said.

"Over the last 10 years, the US-India Defense Partnership has changed dramatically. We see great potential and opportunity in their relationships. Anything that two plus two conversations between Secretary (Antony) Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had with their counterparts helped further clarify that," he added. 

Chollet stressed that the relationship between the United States and India is "natural" in close touch with India and added that the Biden administration is very much eager to work with India as it diversifies its defence capabilities and defence suppliers.

According to him, the defence demand of New Delhi has been changed in the last decade and added, the Biden administration would fully cooperate with the Modi government in securing deals.

"We very much want to be part of that. We're doing much more than we've ever done in the history of our relationship together in terms of defence. And so, as India's seeking to acquire new capabilities, the United States very much wants to be a partner with India in that effort," he said.

Citing the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions imposed by the West and European countries, he said that Moscow wouldn't be in the position to accomplish its previous defence deals as several countries have stopped exporting components to Moscow.

"The difficulty of doing business with Russia is only going to grow over time. It's become much harder given all the sanctions placed on Russia in the last 12 weeks," he said.

"Also, the export control against Russia... Russia's inability to import key technologies to be able to make certain products, including some of its military hardware, is going to mean that it's going to have a hard time even getting the capability to replace or produce this kind of material. So, any way you look at it in terms of actual capability, in terms of the difficulty of doing business with Russia, in terms of the reputation costs associated, Russia is just a far less attractive partner,” he said.

India to receive the S-400 air defence system by July

It is worth mentioning India has been importing several Russian-made weapons, including tanks, artillery guns and missile systems for decades. It has also signed deals to purchase the S-400 air defence system from Moscow despite a repetitive warning from the US. 

Even the US warned India could face sanctions under Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) when New Delhi signed the deal with Russia. Earlier, it was expected that New Delhi would receive the second squadron of the S-400 air defence system this month but due to the ongoing war, it is likely to be delayed by three months.

With inputs from ANI

Image: AP/PTI