U.S. President Joe Biden has said only India among the Quad group of countries was “somewhat shaky” in acting against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. As India tries to balance its ties with Russia and the West.
While the other Quad countries – the United States, Japan and Australia – have sanctioned Russian entities or people, India has not imposed sanctions on its biggest supplier of military hardware.
India has urged an end to the violence in Ukraine but has not condemned its old Cold War ally for the invasion.
“In response to his aggression, we have presented a united front throughout the NATO and in the Pacific,” Biden told a business forum on Monday, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The Quad – with the possible exception of India being somewhat shaky on some of these – but Japan has been extremely strong, so is Australia in terms of dealing with Putin’s aggression.”
Putin says Russia is carrying out “a special military operation” to stop the Ukrainian government from committing “genocide” – an accusation the West calls a baseless fabrication.
Biden has said only India among the Quad group of countries was “somewhat shaky” in acting against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine
After a virtual summit between the Australian and Indian prime ministers on Monday. India’s foreign ministry said Australia understood India’s position on Ukraine. Which “reflected our own situation, our own considerations”.
Even though India has grown close to the United States in recent years. It still depends on Russia for a continuous supply of arms and ammunition amid a Himalayan border standoff with China and perennial tension with Pakistan.
India is also considering buying more Russian oil at a discount. With two Indian state companies recently ordering 5 million barrels. Indian analysts and government officials point out that European countries are buying fuel from Russia, while publicly criticising Moscow.
“We have made clear in our conversation that we understand that’s not something that you can cut off immediately, in the same way that we’ve been clear with our European allies who are still too dependent on Russian energy that we understand that they will have to evolve away from it as well,” she said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.