NEW DELHI: India has been invited to the G-7 Summit not because the US is keen to splinter it off from Russia, asserted US National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, John Kirby. The US considers India a key strategic partner in the Indo-Pacific, he said, adding that the agenda of the G-7 meeting in Germany, beginning Sunday, was “deep and diverse”.
“It is not about trying to splinter it (India) off or coax it away from any other association or partnership that it might have with another country. That’s not the goal here. The goal is to unify around a set of common principles and initiatives,” Kirby said, adding that G-7 wants to advance in terms of climate change, energy and food security.
Kirby made these remarks during a briefing ahead of President Joe Biden’s departure for the Summit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, will attend the summit. Regarding India’s increasing imports of crude from Russia, Kirby said the US lets Indian leaders speak about their economic policies. He, however, reiterated that the US wanted to exert international pressure on Russia amidst the conflict in Ukraine. “We value this bilateral relationship with India and we continue to want every country to make those decisions for themselves...but we want as much pressure put internationally on Russia as possible,” he added.
India has in recent weeks spiked crude imports from Russian despite global sanctions on Moscow. US officials have conveyed to India that there is no ban on energy imports from Russia but they do not want to see a rapid acceleration.
Several institutional mechanisms have been set up for the development of economic cooperation between India-Russia but the Ukraine war and subsequent sanctions placed by the West have proved to be a hurdle in trade. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar earlier hit back at the unfair criticism of the West on India’s oil purchase from Russia.