US Warns India Will Face Significant Long Term Costs If It Aligns With Russia

India has so far refused to follow the West’s anti-Russia sanctions, opting instead to continue importing Russian oil. As a result, US has warned that India will face significant long term costs if it aligns with Russia.

US Warns India Will Face Significant Long Term Costs If It Aligns With Russia

Considering that a small number of nations who place amongst the world’s greatest economies have been hesitant to criticize Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, this might throw a kink in US-EU ambitions to significantly alienate Russia and cause mayhem on worldwide Russian exports.

China is one of them, but there is also India, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, and Indonesia. For example, India, which is the world’s sixth largest economy, remains the single greatest customer of Russian armaments. In what appears to be a prospective shift away from Saudi petroleum, India is also allegedly eyeing more discounted Russian oil.

Putin and PM Modi in New Delhi on Dec. 6. Hindustan Times via Getty Images

The New York Times reported in early March that India was one of the countries striving to “stay above the fray” as a result of its reliance on several Russian goods. “When India abstained from a United Nations vote and the chorus of Western condemnation against the Ukraine invasion, it appeared to be taking sides: offering tacit support for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia,” the New York Times earlier stated.

And now, Washington is warning New Delhi that if it aligns with Russia, it will pay “significant costs” as a major export destination, enabling Putin to avoid the sanctions.

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The US remains “disappointed” with portions of the Indian government’s response to the Ukraine issue, according to the Biden administration’s Director of the National Economic Council, Brian Deese.

“There are certainly areas where we have been disappointed by both China and India’s decisions, in the context of the invasion,” he said a Wednesday event in D.C.

Bloomberg quoted him as saying:

The US has told India that the consequences of a “more explicit strategic alignment” with Moscow would be “significant and long-term,” he said.

India has so far refused to follow the West’s anti-Russia sanctions, opting instead to continue importing Russian oil, which accounts for about 2% of the country’s overall imported oil.

As NBC News reported on recent visits to New Delhi by key Washington officials:

A flurry of visits by Russian and Western diplomats is unlikely to change India’s neutral stance on the war in Ukraine, experts say, particularly since the war has the support of a public being bombarded by media coverage that blames the U.S. for the conflict.

In the meantime, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov applauded the Modi government for not taking a “one-sided” approach to the Ukraine situation.

On Tuesday, the White House Press Secretary released statements urging fence-sitter nations to comply with US and European sanctions as soon as possible. “We don’t believe it’s in India’s interest to accelerate or increase imports of Russian energy and other commodities,” she said during the press conference, addressing New Delhi directly. “every country should abide by the sanctions that we [ the U.S.] have announced and that we’re implementing around the world.” she said.

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