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New Delhi: Strategic autonomy cannot apply in times of conflict and India and the US must uphold principles when other countries go against the rules-based order or violate sovereign borders, US ambassador Eric Garcetti said on Thursday in a swipe against Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s visit to Russia.<\/p>\n
Garcetti\u2019s remarks, made at a conclave focused on the India-US defence partnership, came against the backdrop of the White House and the US state department expressing concern about India\u2019s relationship with Russia and hoping that New Delhi uses its long-standing ties with Moscow to urge President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Without referring to Modi\u2019s trip to Moscow or the war in Ukraine, Garcetti was critical of the outcomes of the India-Russia Summit and the stand taken by the Indian side \u2013 that a solution cannot be found on the battlefield and New Delhi stands for a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Garcetti also sought to compare Russia\u2019s violation of Ukraine\u2019s borders with the military standoff between India and China on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).<\/p>\n
\u201cI know\u2026and I respect that India likes its strategic autonomy. But in times of conflict, there is no such thing as strategic autonomy. We will, in crisis moments, need to know each other. I don\u2019t care what title we put to it, but we will need to know that we are trusted friends, brothers and sisters, colleagues\u2026,\u201d Garcetti said at the event held at the United Service Institution of India, a defence think tank.<\/p>\n
There was no immediate response from Indian officials to the US envoy\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n
Garcetti said the work being done by India and the US to jointly develop weapons, conduct joint military exercises and foster exchanges between their military leadership will allow them to be \u201ca powerful ballast against the waves that will sweep over Asia and other parts of the world, and I think we all know that we\u2019re interconnected in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
In an apparent reference to Putin\u2019s aggression against Ukraine, he added, \u201cNo war is distant anymore and we must not just stand for peace, we must take concrete actions to make sure those who don\u2019t play by peaceful rules, that their war machines cannot continue unabated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcetti sought to draw a comparison between the outcomes of the India-Russia Summit, which resulted in two joint statements and nine agreements, and the Indian prime minister\u2019s visit to Washington last June.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can read leaders\u2019 agreements, as we might have done this week\u2026look through the ones that are kind of dressed up versus the ones that have to be edited down. I was told when we had the prime minister\u2019s visit, that a state visit that has five to 10 deliverables is a very strong visit. At our peak, we had 173 separate deliverables, that the US and India were working on together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand there\u2019s legacy equipment, you\u2019ve got to be battle-ready, you need spare parts for that, but as you look at the future, we know where the best systems, the best weapons are coming from\u2026As we have said, don\u2019t look at this cynically,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Garcetti said several times during his speech that both India and the US shouldn\u2019t take their relationship for granted because \u201cwhile it is wide and it is deeper than it\u2019s ever been, it is not yet deep enough\u201d. He also sought to compare Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine to the situation on India\u2019s northern border, noting that the world has \u201cwitnessed countries who ignore sovereign borders\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cI don\u2019t have to remind India how important borders are\u2026That when we stand on those principles and stand together\u2026we can show that principles are the guiding light of peace in our world and together the world\u2019s two largest democracies can enhance the security and the stability of our region.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Modi met Putin on the same day that a Russian missile strike hit Ukraine\u2019s largest children\u2019s hospital, the prime minister raised the killing of \u201cinnocent children\u201d at a meeting with the Russian president at the Kremlin and emphasised that a solution can\u2019t be found on the battlefield.<\/p>\n
However, the US has continued to express concerns about India\u2019s relationship with Russia. US state department Matthew Miller said the American side raised these concerns with India even as Modi was visiting Russia, while a White House spokesperson said India\u2019s long-standing relationship with Russia gives it the ability to urge Putin to end \u201chis brutal and unprovoked war in Ukraine\u201d.<\/p>\n
People familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity that the US raised the visit with the Indian side both in Washington and New Delhi soon after media reports last month said Modi was expected to travel to Moscow. The US side was miffed as India hadn\u2019t given any indication about the visit when US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan visited New Delhi last month, two of the people cited above said.<\/p>\n
According to a Bloomberg report, US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell expressed concern about the visit in a phone call to foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra and said its timing was \u201cparticularly problematic for Washington\u201d. The visit coincided with a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit that was attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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[ad_1] New Delhi: Strategic autonomy cannot apply in times of conflict and India and the US must uphold principles when other countries go against the rules-based order or violate sovereign borders, US ambassador Eric Garcetti said on Thursday in a swipe against Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s visit to Russia. Garcetti\u2019s remarks, made at a conclave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Eric-Garcetti-sends-blunt-message-to-India-over-PM-Modis-Russia-trip.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34484,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34482\/revisions\/34484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}